Published on 12, July, 2020
My sensory issues feel like mild hallucinations, because I sometimes smell things that other people can't smell.
I have this with sound. The game of is it auditory hallucination, tinnitus, or hearing the electricity/sound no one else can, is rarely a fun one to play.
I have had someone say to me "why is it that you can get so stressed by a sound that I cannot even hear?!". The problem is, just because other people cannot smell or hear what we can, they think we are over reacting. Tinnitus is not fun. When I lay down to sleep at night, I sometimes have a tinnitus that sounds just like the bathroom fan and have to get up to check that it is not actually turned on. Very frustrating!
Do you have the sound issues while you're actually asleep too? I've been woken up by the slight clicking noise that the heating makes turning on if the temperature drops too low in the night, my partner's key in the door downstairs, and I have to turn off the water pump that supplies the flat at night otherwise the humming noise it makes around 3am will wake me up -- and I'm hearing all these sounds through earplugs!
I can't work out if my hearing is sensitive or not. I used to be able to hear my partner chewing in the other room while he couldn't hear me shouting through the wall to him. But I have to have the TV volume quite high or I miss all the dialogue.
I also like to watch things with subtitles, then you can have the volume down to a comfortable level and still not miss what is being said. Do you find adverts to be a problem, as the volume is often so much higher and more aggressive than the programme? I find this with YouTube and always have my finger on the mute button when I see that an advert is coming up. I am the same as you with the screen brightness setting on my Chromebook... I keep trying to turn it lower and it always turns off before I can get it as dim as I want!
Hmm, actually I do tend to listen to music on a very low volume (I often get surprised that it switches off when I try to turn it down again when it's already on the lowest setting!) Tbh the constant up/downing that is required with the volume control when watching TV/films might be one reason why I prefer to read instead. And everything is better with subtitles.
Yes, the neighbours boiler wakes me up when it comes on in the morning, as does their bathroom extractor fan and the sound their boiler makes every time they turn on a hot tap anywhere in the house!!! I would love to be able to soundproof my bedroom! I find that earplugs don't help with a lot of frequencies and I don't like the sensation of them in my ears. I also cannot sleep if the neighbours are snoring - it is not good to be able to hear that through a thick stone wall! However rain, gentle wind in the trees and birdsong don't wake me or bother me, so it is a bit selective.
It might just be that you are a light sleeper and/or always on high alert but if noises that others can't hear or don't notice disturb you, then your hearing probably is sensitive. Sometimes I think that maybe I am just intolerant (as well as on high alert) but the fact is I hear and react to things that others don't.
It is strange that you have to have the TV volume quite high though, I can't watch TV but do watch things on YouTube and have that turned right down. Don't you find that certain things on TV though are hard to understand/hear regardless of the volume because of the chaotic way the programs are produced (which is why I can't watch it). I find that a lot of TV programmes are too 'noisy' to actually hear what is being said, so maybe this is why you end up turning the volume up?
p.s the sound of people chewing is very uncomfortable !