Published on 12, July, 2020
Hello all.
I'm awaiting an assessment for diagnosis, it's a 27 month wait list and my god am I struggling. I find my main struggles are sounds. I'm struggling to sleep because things are waking me, cars on the road, dogs barking, others in the house moving around.....the smallest of things. I've got white noise playing when I sleep and also sometimes have ear plugs in. If I'm at home and sat watching TV etc and I hear a dog bark, loud car pass my house etc it really triggers me, I can only describe it as making me feel ill and angry. I hate these feelings. Not sure what I can do. There's a list of other things too but the sounds is definitely the worst! Any advice would be so appreciated
Thanks
Lois
Hi Slater1, sounds like some have already suggested various earplugs and/or noise cancelling headphones. About a month or two ago I started using Loop earplugs (the Quiet ones) every night as I was being woken up with that same ill/angry feeling by my housemate and other noises, and also I had for a long time been using an eye mask but still felt like it was too bright. Interestingly, since using the Loop earplugs, I don't mind or notice the brightness so much either. Which is weird but really helpful! Maybe I was getting my senses mixed up!
Anyway, I did find the earplugs a little uncomfortable to start with as I don't really like wearing stuff or things touching me around my face if I can help it. And they caused a bit of pain on one part of my ear, but within a week that went and now they are comfortable and I've been sleeping well every night. Obviously, you may be more sensitive to sound than me, but might be worth a try. I found an online voucher for mine and got them for only £11!
Another thing that might be worth trying (and I haven't got any experience of this yet) is doing like a sensory circuit before bed or at particularly stressed times. I also work in a school with autistic students and I've been researching and planning some sensory circuits for us to use next year - they effectively do, for example, 2 alerting activities (jumping, bouncing, energy-using) then 2 organising activities (climbing, blowing a paper ball to a target, balancing) and then 1 calming activity (pushing against a wall, using a weighted blanket)... These are just examples and there are lots of ideas on the internet, but it may be that by addressing the overall sensory overload might reduce some of the sound-specific sensory problems. If you do try it, I'd be interested to know how it goes and once I've tried it with my students I can let you know what they think too!
Thank you so much, the loop ear plugs sound like a good one to try out.
Also the sensory circuit sounds good too, I managed to speak with a link worker from the assessment sentry and she's also advised a sensory box for whenni get overwhelmed. Stuff that will calm me, mbe like popping bubble wrap etc. All good advice thank you