Published on 12, July, 2020
Does anybody have any experience with noise and anger?
Loud noises can sometimes send me into an absolute rage. Its not all noises, I like music and even like it loud sometimes. But other noises such as ice-cream van chimes or church bells affect me very badly. I don’t know if its an ASD thing or a normal reaction to sounds I don’t like.
I used to just try and ignore it and carry on, but I think I am getting less tolerant as I am getting older. I used to just try and push through it and carry on, but now even the tannoy in a supermarket makes me have to leave my shopping and go home.
I do find that anger is my default setting for loud noises. People who whistle loudly can make me angry very quickly, if looks could kill, some of these people wouldn’t be around anymore. Reversing bleepers and having a tv and radio on at the same time, drives me insane.
Whistling drives me insane too. It's mostly just the shrillness of it, but can often be passive-aggressively weaponised too: someone sharing office space who sees you're having a bad day wants to flag up their contrastively jolly one (real or faked)? Out comes the old cheery whistle. Or that's how it can feel, rightly or wrongly, sometimes.
Whistling can sometimes ruin a good song or soundtrack too. I remember Murray Gold hired a professional whistler to add bits to the otherwise beautiful soundtrack for one of Doctor Who's best stories, Human Nature/The Family of Blood. Russell T. Davies, who must be a fellow whistling hater, or at least saw the vandalism that would be inadvertently wrought, interceded at the last moment thank goodness, and as broadcast the whistling was gone. Unfortunately it turned up on the soundtrack release after, but I suppose that meant the 'musician' got some recognition. He meant well!