Published on 12, July, 2020
I am most comfortable with complete silence.
I wonder if this is the autism at play?
When I was growing up our house was always noisy and I think I was traumatised by it.
There were no quiet refuges - I even shared a bedroom until I left home.
My mum had to have sound on all the time. I believe she was autistic but I think she had an under sensitivity to noise, which I'm pretty sure I've read can also be an autism thing.
Then I had a series of shared flats, which were noisy, then bedsits until I purchased a quiet flat in my 30s.
Then I lived in a nice Victorian house on my own which still had some noise, as it was on a busy road in Portsmouth and terraced.
Nowadays I am lucky.
The last 15 years I have lived in a very quiet detached house where once the windows are closed there is no outside (or inside often) noise at all.
My husband is a quiet person + spends a lot of time in his studio outside.
It's taken me a long time to get to this quiet place in my life - I am now 61.
How do you respond to noise/silence?
I'm like you, I need silence. I'm very fortunate that I have been able to find quiet space at home most of my life although sometimes when I'm feeling really sensitive/overstimulated and even though there isn't anyone/anything making noise around me I still want my ear plugs in so I can't hear all the 'quiet noises' that most other people don't hear like the electricity or the boiler or a clock ticking in the other room.
My Nan always had to have sound in her house, the second she got through the door the radio or TV would go on, I never understood it!
Maybe strangely I quite like no noise but from the front room to hear the clock ticking in the kitchen, I can focus on it. At night I like the low sound of the tram nearby and sometimes awake at night I try not to get up until I hear the first tram. I find something reassuring that life is still happening outside.