Silence

Roy said:

I often felt like a cat in a kennel full of dogs.

What a lovely way to put it !

That amazing thing of 'I can make my own rules' is a novelty that never seems to fade for me. There's still that inner child I think, the one who one day imagined having a house, a car, buying the things I wanted (sweets! Comics! Books!), staying up late etc. And he occasionally pops back up and goes 'wow', to remind me to take nothing for granted. 

I am at peace with complete silence and a good book.

Tinnitus seems to have stolen my silence.  Now I must seek out sounds that complement my mood.

I love silence!

I’m glad you have found an ideal environment, I’m lucky enough to work on my own for 8 hours a day. I very rarely have to verbally communicate, it’s what I need to keep sane. (slightly sane) I was also bought up in a noisy house, luckily it backed onto woodland so I had an escape. School as I’m sure you can appreciate was hell, especially Secondary school. Teachers love putting children into groups, I often felt like a cat in a kennel full of dogs. I think what we find with age is that we can make our lives quite liveable, we just need to set the rules and not be told what they think we need to do. I have found noise cancelling earphones a godsend.

I am finding i need complete silence more and more.too. I live on an estate but thankfully there isn't too much noise 

I've just ordered those 'flares' earpod things for dampening down sound to an extent, so will see what those are like when they turn up.

I think often it's volume, more than sound itself, that really drains me. Most people seem to crank stuff up loud and that appears to be part of the enjoyment for them. Though, for me, the more I'm processing LOUD the less bandwidth I have to tune into the intricacies of a music track's construction, etc.  which is where the added value experience tends to lie, for me. 

The older I get, the more sustained silence I need to function. While I do listen to things a fair bit (I couldn't do the dishes or iron without an audiobook or podcast), I keep a low volume and anything with very dense sound (I don't mean texture or intricacy, which I do very much like - more sort of heavy, cluttered sound, like rock music background tracks) I can only take in small doses and would need regular breaks from. Sound that I can't control is the biggest challenge. 

Like you, Debbie, my parental home always had, and retains, a fairly busy, fussy air to it and occasional refuge from at least some form of ambient complexity had to be grabbed when it could. In some ways (and if mood-matched to it with more 'spoons' ) it was nice that my dad liked to play his favourite music loud (too loud though) when the notion seized him, but that could be for many hours. He also took up the banjo, which was great therapy for him I think - his own way to stim I suppose, if there's an ND component to him- but that instrument has a way of getting to even the furthest reaches of the house. It gave him pleasure, and may do again if he ever gets well enough, which is the main thing. But I'm so glad I have my own place now. 

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!