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Can anyone vouch for Calmer earplugs?

4gottenLoreKali

Metalqueer
V.I.P Member
I'm seeing a lot of ads for these Calmer brand earplugs in my socials. They're specifically marketed to mitigate autistic peoples' sound sensitivity. Sensory overload isn't as huge a problem for me as when I was younger, but I definitely could still see these coming in handy for moments when I'm agitated but still need to perform tasks.

So... have you bought a pair of Calmer plugs? What's the ordering process like? How effective are they? How do they compare to the generic foam ones you'd find at a hardware store? Do Calmer plugs somehow have a way of differentiating "important" sounds / voices you need to "focus on" and not muffling those? (I know a lot of autistic people struggle with this, myself included... I often joke that whoever did the audio mixing for my ears needs to be fired.)

It's wicked nice to see products geared toward neurodivergent folks to help us function better, that aren't presented as solutions to relieve caregivers' burdens.
 
So, I tried them. I didn't find that they did much but also, they hurt my ears. This isn't to say that they will hurt YOUR ears, because pretty much every earplug in existence either a) doesn't work or b) hurts my ears. I must have odd shaped ear canals because earplugs regularly fall out, or they hurt my ears, or they fall out AND hurt my ears simultaneously. I have spent probably hundreds of dollars over the years trying to find earplugs that work as I need to wear hearing protection at work, and the over the ear kind hurts my jaw. (I really need custom molded ones but I haven't gotten around to it yet.)

I did notice a subtle difference in sounds when wearing them, but as far as effectiveness goes, I prefer my Hearos Rock n' Roll - they're a lot cheaper and block sounds pretty well (though I need to adjust them throughout the day as they tend to work their way out of my ears when I talk etc. and as earwax builds up.)
 
I see them advertised for tinnitus also, with mixed reviews.
Flare Calmer Tinnitus Review by Hearing Doctor –

For noise reduction wouldn't normal earplugs be cheaper? And there are many different types out there.

They originally weren't marketed for tinnitus or autism either, but a bunch of autistic people were saying "hey this helps with my sensory sensitivities" so I guess they started marketing directly to those groups. I tried them when they first came on the market, when people were still speculating "hey I wonder if this would help with my sensory sensitivities". The same thing happened with tinnitus. I gather that a fair few people found that they did and they started targeting those groups with their advertising.
 

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