I hope my new earmuffs help

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I bought professional earmuffs today, the kind that you wear to protect yourself from loud sounds. They work up to 30 decibels. The challenging part now is that they hurt and I can hear my heartbeat which is annoying too. I used them with 32 decibel foam earplugs together. It definitely helps with the external noise but it does amplify the internal noise like when I move around or like my heartbeat. So I have to get used to this. I guess there is no way to cut out all the noise. And I don't wish to be deaf. I actually love being able to hear and to be able to hear extremely well. It's just the noises that bother me that I want to get rid of. I wish I had the money to buy a mountain near the beach and put a fence around it so I could only hear nature sounds. But now I can only afford to live in the city so I have to hear all the stupid obnoxious people sounds that trigger my Misophonia. So hopefully these earmuffs will help make the overwhelming sensory input part of my life less miserable. I certainly spent enough money for them.

I hope so too, Skibum!

Had a nice weekend?

I just bought some 30-dB ear defenders a couple of months ago and have similar issues. I can't hear my heartbeat, but I can hear my footsteps, so I take mine off while walking. They hurt my ears if I wear them for too long. Also, they don't block out voices well enough for me.


How much did you spend? Mine were not expensive. I bought them at a hardware store.

Thanks Kraftie, The weekend was busy. We had a nice day Saturday. We went on a boat ride, Husband's dad has a little boat and that he keeps at a tiny yacht club and the members all took their boats and we went on our annual trip across the bay to a seafood restaurant. Of course I had a burger. I don't love seafood. They were teasing me about having a burger rather than crabs!

They were $25.00 I got them at Lowe's. They had another pair for $55.00 that you could plug into an MP3 player but they only do 23 decibels. I wish I had them on now because someone just drove by with loud bass. That is not only a Misophonic trigger for me but it also makes me physically ill. But I am going to play some music while I try to sleep and I have the AC on in the window so hopefully I will be able to get some sleep.

If you put in the 32 decibel cheap foam earplugs and then big headphones (not earbuds ) and play music , that works pretty well. If you want to drown out even more noise then sing along with the music.

when I had noisy housemates, I put headphones over earbuds and then listened to music with the headphones. That blocked out the noise pretty well.

I hope the ear defenders work out - they do take getting used to. After a while I've found one's brain programs out the whole hearing your heartbeat when you have them on.

Went to Disney this past year and spent most of the time with earplugs in. I smiled when I saw a stroller with a young boy wearing ear defenders on go by. I sure could relate.

Good luck.

Thanks guys, I'll keep you posted on how they work out. I like the idea of singing along once I can afford some that I can play music through. I love to sing anyway!

You can use ear defenders for musicians. They don´t block sounds, but can take off 15-25 db or more, so you hear everything, but at livingroom loudness. They are made especially for your ears and the db filters are interchangable. Price around 230-50 dollars.

Thank you for the suggestion. But I have some. I paid $150.00 for them. They did not really help though. I found that the foam ones from Walmart for $7.00 for 40 of them were just as good even though they are supposed to be one time use. Sometimes I wash them and use them multiple times if there is not too much ear wax on them. One of the filters on my musicians earplugs broke as well while I was cleaning it and they wanted another $100.00 to replace them. I had the highest level of filters too, the 25 dbs and found that they mostly blocked out sounds that did really bother me but the sounds that are Misophonic triggers that I wanted blocked were not. So far the combination of soft ear plug with ear defender earmuff is not perfect but it's better than the other things I have tried. I have also tried beeswax and lanolin ear plugs which work very well also but they are messy and sticky and can be hard to get all the "dough" out of your ear canals. And they have to be put in exactly right to work so there is a bit of a learning curve. At least they are inexpensive. Other than the bulkiness and the pain of the earmuffs, which I will just have to get used to, the combination of them and the soft earplugs are most likely going to be the best option. I may even wear them out in public. I know it will look weird but I think I might have to just not care how it looks.

howard leight clarity earmuffs are designed to block out just loud noise and not most noise like most ear defenders (including others of there own brand) i love howard leight l1 and l2 but they DO block out more than just loud sounds which is what i need anyways

Hope those earmuffs help (although they are kind of funny looking)! For me, earmuffs can make me feel more 'cut off' from the environment and in certain instances that is not safe, like driving.

Do you know of pink or 1/f noise? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pink_noise Maybe it would help ease some discomfort caused by over stimuli.

I´m considering some huntsman ear muffs. They can block the sound from a shot before the impulse reaches the ear, but at the same time allow you to hear a mouse nosing in the grass.