The bell ruined my school life

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Most people say to me ''it doesn't make you jump if you're expecting it'', but it does with me. In fact, when I'm expecting a sudden noise, it makes it worse, in a way. If somebody was holding a balloon and said, ''I'm going to pop this balloon NOW'' and actually popped it immediately after saying ''now'', it might not shock me so much, but if somebody said that then waited a few seconds, it will shock me to pieces, even though I was prewarned. This is what caused issues with the bell at school. I kept a watch on my wrist at all times to keep an eye on the time, then when the bell was due to ring, I would try my best to not be under a bell until after it rings. I found myself dawdling about outside or in parts of corridors where there weren't any bells directly above me, which probably made me seem weirder than what I really was. The bell didn't seem to bother the other kids, only on rare occasions I've seen someone put their fingers in their ears when under a loud bell, but not often. It was just me that was so afraid of it, and it would be and all, being the only Aspie in a mainstream school. In the first 2 years of High School, they didn't use bells, which was lovely. Then a new headmaster came, and wanted to bring back using bells, which was so horrible for me. Just the thought of being under a bell always filled me with fear. I did try not to be once, but it didn't work. I found myself going all wobbly and nauseous when near a bell. But sometimes I think that this bell thing is not just a loud noise sensitivity - it's more of a lifelong phobia. Even now when I see a bell in a shop or somewhere, I still get a feeling of phobia filling up in me, and my mouth goes all dry like I have seen a ghost.

Is this normal.....for an Aspie? Or was I mad?

I've had this problem too, it depended on what type of bell it was though and for how long it rang out. I was usually so eager to leave the classroom that I was organising myself for the next class or lunch etc so it was less annoying.

It's rather awkward, though, when the jobcentre offers you a job cleaning or something at a school, and you have to turn it down and when they ask why you know you're going to feel ridiculous saying, ''because I don't like bells.'' So I just apply badly and hope to God I won't get the job. But also in one or two supermarkets I have been in they use bells to alert you when there's a delivery, and they are loud and they go off when you least expect it, which I don't think I'll be able to cope with either. And I don't really want to walk around with earplugs in because a) people might think I'm stupid, and b) I can't talk to people properly with earplugs in, and I like to talk to people like colleagues.

I'm always afraid to tell people, though, that I don't like bells because they will think I'm stupid. Not many people are afraid of bells, and even those who are don't let it take over their life like it does me.

My fear of bells is what I call a ''pathological fear'', a fear that cannot be reasoned with or talked out of. It's been there since I was very small and it never went away as I got older, so now I know I am going to be afraid of them for the rest of my life, just like I am with spiders. I will never, ever touch a big spider in my life, just the same as I will never stand under a bell in my life, with naked ears.

You shouldn't be afraid to tell people, lots of people have irrational fears. I'm afraid of sponges, cotton wool, oil, teeth grinding, hoovers, generally loud sounds too. Arachnophobia is very common, you could even explain it to people the way you have to me, as comparing their probable fear of spiders to your fear of bells ringing. People won't think you're stupid but you don't have to tell this information to many people either, only people that it concerns. I wouldn't tell everyone on the street what I'm afraid of but the people that I have told think my fears are quite interesting.

If working with bells, or being around them is impossible then I agree to avoid them as much as possible.

My schools never used real bells. Just a tone over the intercom for the bell. So bells never affected me when I went to school.

fire alarms used to scare me but i think the reason for that was because they were loud! i used to be in a classroom where the actual fire alarm was installed in the class room and they were shreakingly loud. kind of made me nervous all the time.

I used to be the same way, and as far as I know it's not weird to be startled by school bells. Even preparing for it to ring doesn't really solve the problem, but maybe you'll get used to it eventually. I used to get so scared too, but then at my school there were so many problems with the emergency fire bell (which is even louder and shriller than the normal bell) that now I barely jump when I hear it.

At my high school, we didn't even have bells, so the teachers dismissed us.

I used to have this problem throughout elementary school and most of middle school. I often plugged my ears five minutes before the bell was due to ring during those years. By eighth grade, the bell didn't bother me as much as they used to.

Do you use earplugs or headphones?

In elementary school, the bells were the most scary thing in the world! I was trying to hide from them, but they were just to loud. Luckily my middle school doesn't use bells. When they were rationalizing their decision, they said everybody hated bells. So, I guess it's a common issue.

I forgot about that, I like the bell better, it was that buzzer thing, I did not like that thing at all, too loud.

The school I went to for kindergarten had AWFUL school bells. There were a LOT of them installed throughout the building, even in some classrooms, even in the music room, the multi-purpose room (now a computer lab), even in the maintenance hallway near the boiler room and water heater rooms! They were installed behind those gray grilles, which I think made their sound louder (though they were also obviously to reduce vandalism.) The bells were made by Simplex, and were the original bells from when the school was built in 1974. When I went here, it was a regular K-6 elementary school, and during my kindergarten year the bell system was having problems, meaning the bells would randomly ring when they weren't supposed to! (I think they still had the old electromechanical clock/bell control panel from the 1970s at the time; now they have a new computer-based one from American Time and Signal, but the old bells and clocks are still intact but they work properly. These bells were just as loud as the fire alarm!
If anyone was interested, the bells sounded exactly like that loud stock sound recording you always hear of school bells on movies and TV. Worst bell sound ever.

The main gymnasium was worse. They had bigger bells (these bells were 10-inch gongs, the rest of the school had 6-inch bells.)
Sometimes I can't help but wonder if this school was originally meant to be for the heard of hearing or something.
When I was here and we were in the hallway or some other area where bells were visible, I'd always have my ears covered because the bell could ring at any time (due to the time system having problems.) That was a lot of fun

The horrible elementary school I went to for grades 1-6 had NO bells whatsoever, so I was able to be weaned without them for six years. Among entering junior high, I thought it was going to be like kindergarten all over again, but this time on my first day there I quickly learned the areas where the bell was loud and where it was unusually quiet. It also helped that the second floor, and that a few parts of the first floor used older chimes instead of bells. The "real" bells were made by Edwards, and they and the chimes were the originals from when the school was built in 1957! They weren't as loud as the Simplex bells, but were still pretty loud if you were in a hallway or room with them or something! A few of these bells were disconnected, too. There was also one bell outside the speech classroom that was muffled up with cloth and duct tape and stuff, and sounded sort of like a buzzer as a result! Usually at lunch, or if I was in music, art or gym class, right before the bell was supposed to ring, I would excuse myself to one of the nearby parts of the building where the bell isn't so loud (the teachers didn't mind.) I also wore a watch to the school, and synchronized it to the school's master time control,
It was a Simplex 2350 time system from the 1980s, and had three bell circuits: one for most of the indoor bells, one for the auditorium/music room bells, the wood shop bell and the only working outdoor bell, and one for the cafeteria bell. This was replaced with another American Time and Signal AllSync system in 2010, just like the previously-mentioned K-8 school now has (after I had kindergarten and prior to last summer, they had a Simplex 6100 time control system.)

But when I started high school, we just had a tone on the intercom system, and that was a lot better. By then I was more concerned about trying to get to class on time before the tone sounded!
And additionally those schools still had their extremely old fire alarm systems with buzzer-style alarms. What fun!

I hate the fire alarms at the math science buliding my university so loud and painful to be near. The worst was the time they went off during one of my midterms.