noise sensitivity examples

Unknown said:

The knives in the head thing feels familiar

I was trying to think of how to explain it earlier but I’ve thought of a more accurate analogy. Has your dentist ever used one of those ultrasonic scaler/cleaner things on your teeth? The ones where it feels as if a blade is passing through your teeth? That’s what it’s like.

My goodness that sounds distressing. I definitely find it harder to process now. Either "all at once" sounds or specific sounds. The knives in the head thing feels familiar. Sometimes it FEELS like (but doesn't sound like, depending on the sound), someone crashing cymbals together behind my head. Or if it's one thing after another, being constantly poked in the brain's nerve endings. Or something like that.

I have briefly read hormones in women can have a part to play in noise sensitivity in the general population.

I don’t know why I can’t quote, but I remember having distorted vision and hearing very often in McDonald’s when I worked there. I checked the possibility that my panic attacks, falling on the ground, hyperventilating and crying could be related to heart issues, diabetes or epilepsy. Turned out nothing of it. These repetitive high pitch noises blended my brain. Even this summer I went to McDonald’s for a coffee. Decided it was my last time there after waiting several minutes in this noise and awful smell of roasted beef and bacon (sorry if someone likes it, for me it’s hard to breathe) Then I wondered how I even endured that for so long 10 years ago. 

Electrical appliances - I can hear transformers, LED lights and various other things as a very high pitched whine which I can’t escape from.

Clocks and watches ticking and lots of other random specific little noises.

Other people using noisy headphones or, worse, playing music or videos on their phone without headphones.

Loud music - unless I’ve chosen to listen to it (odd but I’m told this is common in autistic people).

Basically any kind of sound that I can’t get away from. These sounds slice through my head like a blade that irritates all the nerve endings in my head - sorry it’s hard to describe.

It makes  me incredibly anxious and if it continues my vision starts to distort and I may have either a meltdown or a panic attack (although these are uncommon - I generally remove myself or put noise cancelling headphones on before it gets to this).

I am always sensitive to noise but it is much worse if I’m tired, stressed or in a period of burnout.

When I’m like that, noise (or lots of overlapping voices talking, even quietly) makes me feel as if space time is bending around me - my vision warps, my heart rate soars, I become super anxious. I fell to the ground once at a conference when this happened.

With regards to the OP, I'm not sure I experience sensitivity in the same way, but noises which were once tolerable have suddenly became intolerable and very much bring about a physical fight or flight response. In a way never experienced before, that I am aware of. Tinnitus flares up worse and I get sensations in the head which I cannot accurately explain. It sometimes seems to be set off by noise sensitivity itself. It isn't that noises appear louder, maybe they do or dont, it's the response or reaction itself which is difficult and out of my control. Re alienated human - my pattern of childhood/adulthood seems to have been the same.

In my case I would say it fluctuates. I was very sensitive as a Child. Then I kinda got a bit used to it or learned to force myself and ignore my sensitivity. I probably had few burnouts in my life. In those periods it was really hard. I also had periods of dissociation then I don’t contact with the outside world at all. Now I’m a mother of a toddler. It’s really hard and it became more a problem than it was for quite a long time. Hormones also may play a role here. 

I'd be interested to know from others if tolerances of this nature get worse as you get older, are affected by burnout and also if any women have noticed changing hormones playing a part.

Often when I'm laying awake in the middle of the night I'm hear a really high pitch whine, I initially thought it might be tinnitus. I down loaded a sound frequency app and it shows that there is a very high frequency sound which is incredibly loud. I've no idea where it comes from but it's from outside the house. I don't have high tension power lines near me and I live out near the sticks. A complete mystery and an uncomfortable one but a mystery all the same.

I’ve always had a background high frequency tone. It’s very quiet and I can only hear it when the room is absolutely quiet so thankfully it doesn’t torment me. I don’t ever remember it stopping me from sleeping so I guess I’m just used to it. It’s right at the top end of my range. Using a tone generator I’ve mapped it to about 20 kHz. My range is just beyond that and down to about 20 Hz so I still have a very full range in both ears, middle aged. The tone sounds like it’s in both ears, in-phase and therefore coming from inside my head or above and behind it. Even the slightest noise blocks it out 

However I am quite noise sensitive. I don’t experience what you describe - a sort of after-noise or echo - I hear normally but I seem to able to tune in to certain sounds and then I cannot stop hearing them. Loud distinctive voices, percussion sounds like drills or machinery, children crying. They scramble my brain. I cannot actually think whilst I can hear this stuff. Some of it is so distracting that I want to get away from the noise source. It’s strange because I can tolerate a child crying that is with me, but if I hear one in the distance I become quite unable to concentrate or think.

It’s only certain sounds, but when it happens it feels like my brain is in a food mixer. Total scramble.

Hi, I don’t have dx, but from hearing test I know I hear from 5 Hz. The doctor was shocked, said it’s not normal. For me sounds that I hate are for example cutlery and dishes, I do dishes with earplugs. My daughter‘s Duplo blocks, when playing, in both cases I use earplugs, without them I feel something like my brain shaking and curling up. When my daughter screams (temper tantrum for example) - then I feel paralysed something like electronic shock - I have comparison because I was electrocuted. So before I approach her with the “difficult” topic such as brushing teeth, I cover my ears because I know what will happen. My husband told me I’m exaggerating but now it seems he understands that I’m sound sensitive. I also hear the silence, I have tinnitus, I hear lamps, watches, walking cat, I hear a plastic bag being carried on the other sidewalk of a busy street and I can ever get scared of this sound, or a bicycle that is still far away from me. If I’m stressed, I start crying from sounds like opening a plastic bag. Now I work in a warehouse and there are many noises such as rustling plastic or paper being torn, crashes etc. a moment after the sudden sound I feel something like pain but it’s hard to say where exactly. Sounds like loud noises are absolutely unapproachable for me and cause me panic attacks. This sound echoing in my head happens to me after repetitive sounds and it tortures me quite long after the sound is over. When I was a kid we had a neighbor with autistic son, he used to slam doors for 2 hours everyday and I complained about it, this sound was like a spiral replaying after he finished. I only heard from my parents stop exaggerating. School breaks and school trips were a nightmare for me. But on the other hand I had also a pleasant experience with sounds. I described that in “sensory experience” thread.