Published on 12, July, 2020
Those with sensory issues surrounding sound, do you also have very good hearing? Sound is a huge problem for me regarding distraction. I just came out into the garden for a smoke and they’re having a party a few doors down which was winding me up, but I was trying really hard to ignore that and kept trying to make myself carry on with my online search of something (not very successfully). But while all this was going on I noticed this annoying noise on the fence next to me, not particularly loud, and I was struggling to work out what it was. I tried pushing the fence to see if it was the breeze, moved the plant to see if that was brushing against the fence, nope. What it was, was a wasp, collecting wood from the fence for its nest I presume. In the past I’ve also heard a wood louse giving birth in my outhouse when it was quiet and hunted down the noise. And probably a little louder, but the bubbles inside a can of opened Coke drive me mad too.
I have ridiculously sensitive hearing. The tiniest sounds wake me up. I can hear my friend chewing or breathing in the next room while he can't hear me at all, even if I shout as loud as I can.
However I also struggle to understand dialogue on TV or hear speech correctly on a phone call or in an environment with background noise. I like listening to audiobooks but find it very difficult to stay focused, even if I'm trying really hard, and end up with a much looser sense of what's going on than if I read the same text.
Yes I do too, subtitles are always on my tv. Though I’ll still constantly ask my daughter what someone said while we’re watching something and she gets annoyed with me - but I’m not entirely sure if that’s because I miss heard, or because I lost concentration because of adhd.