Noise sensitivity isn't the same in different environments.

I’ve often wondered why I can cope just fine when I visit a bowling alley, even though it can be very loud with the sounds of bowling balls, slot machines, music, and people talking and laughing. Yet at other times, like when fireworks are going off around Guy Fawkes Night, I can’t stand it and usually have to put on my noise-cancelling headphones. I’m curious how that works.

Parents
  • This can be normal for us. This article, including the section mentioned in this snippet, explains more: 

    "Some people have a mixed and/or varying sensory experience, including both hyper-sensitivity and hypo-sensitivity. This can mean you have different levels of sensitivity in different senses, or even to different inputs within the same sense. Your sensitivity may vary over time, in different environments or due to other factors, such as your mental and physical health. For more information about this, read ‘Mixed and varying sensory experiences’ in the next section."

    NAS - Autism and sensory processing

  • Thanks, Bunny. I do think there used to be a tendency to assume autism only applied to kids, so if you were holding down a job and were good at masking, people thought you were basically fine.

  • I find myself equally sensitive and there's no "good" noise.

  • Something that’s just occurred to me (and I hadn’t thought of before, but really distresses me), is when there’s a bad storm at night and you can hear things blowing around. I can’t help but think about all the potential damage it could cause, like knocking down garden fences, tearing off roof tiles, and so on. I’m talking about a really bad storm. I can’t get to sleep, and all I end up doing is listening to the radio to block out the noise until it’s calmed down, which could be hours and hours.The problem is, the radio gives weather updates that talk about the storm, which kind of makes things worse.

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  • Something that’s just occurred to me (and I hadn’t thought of before, but really distresses me), is when there’s a bad storm at night and you can hear things blowing around. I can’t help but think about all the potential damage it could cause, like knocking down garden fences, tearing off roof tiles, and so on. I’m talking about a really bad storm. I can’t get to sleep, and all I end up doing is listening to the radio to block out the noise until it’s calmed down, which could be hours and hours.The problem is, the radio gives weather updates that talk about the storm, which kind of makes things worse.

Children
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