Published on 12, July, 2020
Up until now, noise did not appear to bother me. Now, I am becoming more upset/triggered/bothered by noise. At work (teacher) I am fine, but at home, with two young and often noisy children, I am constantly on edge with noise. Today the noise almost pushed me into meltdown, but lying flat on the floor helped.
What makes this more baffling for me is I love spending spending time listening to loud music through headphones, which I am doing as I type!
Noises I actively dislike are motorbikes passing by, cars backfiring, high pitched noises, multiple conversations happing at once, to name but a few.
I never used to be like this. I am contemplating some earplugs, like Loops, to shut out the sound.
Same here pretty much. I hadn't been conscious of being bothered by noise (well, not as much as I have been lately). And I also like listening to loud music - and playing in a band (though that can sometimes be a problem). Personally, it seems to be linked to unpredictability and chaos. If I am somewhat in control of the sound or engaged with it (listening to music, or playing my instrument in a band) it's easier to process. With respect to conversations happening at once, this is something that has never been easy for me.And, of course, listening to loud music through headphones helps to shut out those unpredictable or chaotic sounds (for me, at least). Of course, if someone should jog me when I have my headphones on, I might jump a mile in the air (metaphorically).With regard to the noises when you are teaching, perhaps it's something to do with your professional focus in that situation and being engaged in the process. I sometimes used to find something similar when I was at work - things which might have bothered me socially were not so much of a problem professionally because I was performing a particular function, "doing my thing".Good luck!
What I've increasingly realised is that if one or two over-sensitivity stimuli are in unremitting play, a third one will all too easily tip the balance into complete overwhelm. For instance, today in the office I'm finding it too bright (and am wearing sunglasses to compensate), and there is an unrelenting oscillating humming noise coming through the open (I'd rather have it closed but that's democracy for you!) window from the roof machinery outside. But because it's not - today -too cold and the office itself is today relatively quiet/subdues on the conversational front, I'm still pre-shutdown and able to somewhat focus. If it was cold (by my definition, my threshold is lower than others) or something as well, I'd end up totally defocused, exhausted, anxious etc. and desperately counting the minutes to hometime. It's always a lottery.
So I wonder if it's something similar in your case. There are layers to the whole thing. You've used up most of your tolerance during the working day, and then several environmental factors at once, including the restlessness (not just noise) of children, a 'to do' list with ever-pressing deadlines, fluctuating light and temperature etc. all form an intricate dance that you can't filter out as easily as NT people can. And the ageing process steadily reduces tolerance too - an already low threshold gets even more so when an always leaky battery becomes even leakier with dwindling 'spare' energy reserves etc.
I do sometime wonder how I coped in the times before I wore sunglasses as often as I pleased, or put in sound filtering earpieces, or engineered more silence and rest in my day. I suppose the only real anser to that is that I never coped especially well, but when I was in my twenties and thirties I had a bit more stretch... and way less now as I race towards fifty!