Published on 12, July, 2020
Hello i'm new to the community. I'm 53 and am still waiting for my full assessment to determine whether i am, as i suspect on the spectrum. I also have a history of anxiety and severe depression stretching back as far as my late teens. I am struggling to process a lot of things at the moment but my biggest challange is noise. I wonder if anyone has any suggestions please.
As i'm getting older i'm finding that my tolerance for noise is getting lower, to the point it has me in panic mode, running for any safe space that is quiet. I have got some Sony noise cancelling headphone as well as some Loops but these don't always help me. Just this weekend the noise was intense from mowers, strimmers, hedge cutters, dogs barking, motorbikes and those awful back firing cars...that i became so upset i was wishing i wasn't here anymore.
How do you cope with noise...Any tips or recommendations would be very gratefully received.
Thank you
As we're getting older, the noise levels are actually going up! I have ear plugs which are designed to block out particular harsh frequencies, and wear then on the bus, in shops and sometimes at home - the dishwasher makes a terribly high piercing sound - but the electric scooters make the same, it's awful.
It's always important to shield our ears, and I've noticed mine ringing more after a few drinks the night before, it seems inflammation can make it worse.
I'm now thinking about my next house move in terms of somewhere quiet as I'm near a busy road and it's really too much. Our senses are tools for calculation. Being Autistic, we tend to have sense-perception in a way which has been described as sensing things as too real. The reality is we don't dull our senses or create 'filters' like our NT peers. Which means the after-effect is feeling things with a greater intensity.
Sound has been used as weaponry, though. It's used by police, it's been used to torture, it's used to keep animals at bay. So, just because it's seemingly invisible, doesn't mean it's not affecting us. And being affected by something which could be used as assault or being invaded by it on a continual input should be maddening. Humans aren't designed for their senses to be continually inundated. We've even come up with a "pathology" to describe those who are deeply impacted - NT or ND - Misophonia: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-38842561
Can definitely see how noise can be used as a weapon. Guess I'm going to have to find some way of coping but it is just so hard