I’m curious if anyone else has experienced something similar.
I’m autistic and tonight I’ve had to leave my own home because of extremely loud music being played by neighbours.
I’m currently sitting in my car somewhere quiet because I simply couldn’t cope with it anymore. I have a £300 pair of noise-cancelling headphones, which normally help me enormously, but the music was so loud that I could still hear it clearly through them.
What I find particularly upsetting is that it’s not just a case of finding the noise annoying. Once I reach that point of sensory overload, I genuinely cannot cope. Everything becomes overwhelming and my only option is to remove myself from the situation.
So I’ve had to get in my car, drive away from my own home and find somewhere quiet — and now I’m sitting here with no idea when it will be safe for me to go back.
I know that other people are entitled to enjoy themselves and have music on. I also know that the world cannot always accommodate my sensory needs. But there’s something incredibly frustrating and upsetting about having to physically leave your own home because your nervous system simply cannot tolerate what other people might consider “just a bit of loud music.”
I’m angry. I’m frustrated. And, if I’m honest, I’m feeling pretty bloody defeated tonight.
I suppose I’m posting because I’m wondering if anyone else understands this particular feeling — having to escape somewhere that is supposed to be your safe space because the sensory environment has become completely unbearable.
Sometimes I think the hardest part is knowing that people who don’t experience sensory overload will probably never understand why something that seems relatively trivial to them can completely derail your entire evening.
