Published on 12, July, 2020
My teenage daughter is awaiting diagnosis of ASD due to a number of different issues.
But one of the problems she has is that she can hear any tiny noise, even noises other people cannot hear, and hates bright light.
The noise issue is the hardest one to help her with as it is small noises that she can hear, so I try to be as quiet as I can and not rattle things or make unneccessary noises, but sometimes small sounds just can't be avoided, like my joints cracking or the sound of a page turning, or a pen on paper. It's impossible to be totally silent.
She does play music or watch tv quite loudly and even likes subtitles on so as not to miss a thing.
She goes to senior school and has to deal with the noises there which she does find overwhelming and so comes home tired and irritable.
I do understand that hearing these noises causes her distress and I wondered how other people who have such sensitive hearing are dealing with this?
Other people's noise bothers me a lot, I cannot bear hearing music, DIY or dogs barking and have had to move home twice for those reasons alone. I also hate it when I'm out walking and cars drive by with thumping bass. Fortunately, where I live now is relatively quiet. Things like the sound of the freezer will only bother me if I'm trying to sleep.
As for light, I can't understand why the default settings on laptops etc. are so bright, surely that would give anybody a headache. I have to set screens to minimum brightness and also adjust the gamma, contrast sliders to a low setting as well, black backgrounds are also preferable. Sunlight outdoors will soon leave my eyes streaming unless I'm wearing shades. Being in a typically lit office or classroom is like spending a day in an MRI scanner (Not that I ever have spent a day inside an MRI scanner but I imagine it would be just as intense).