Coping better with noisy enviroments

[artfull dodger]

I am learning that even at events where I am really enjoying myself that to much noise, even if it is not painful for me, can and does leave me exhausted afterwards. Yesterday I went to my most favorite event, a large model train show. Packed with familys and loud kids, everybody talking loudly, kids screaming and being typical loud kids. But this time, I wore my ear muff hearing protection that I also wear at work. Afterwards I felt much less stressed, my anxiety was not sky high and I was able to stay up later that night watching TV as I was not as tired as I would have been. I got a few looks and stares and some that knew why I had them on, even if they didn't see the autism shirt I was wearing. I can still hear conversation with them on, better than without as it dulls down the overwhelming background noise. I was at a table when a young boy pointed at my head/ear muffs(which have autism awareness decals on them) and his mother told him that I was autistic and that the noise was to loud for me in there and that was why I was wearing them. Then I saw a young man that was on the spectrum, he had a set of noise canceling ear muffs on, we made brief eye contact and kind of nodded to each other. Knowing that each other were on the spectrum. Mike

 

[Butterfly88]

I'm glad you are getting better at handling noise. It's a shame people point and stare. It's cool you put autism awareness decals on your ear muffs. I never thought of doing that myself, I may have to consider it.

 

[WereBear]

I love it! I am also learning just how much sensory input, even enjoyable sensory input, wears out my brain.

 

[Dalton]

I used to hate the noise when I was younger, but as I got older I tried different methods to try and cope with it. The one method I tried is chewing gum when going out somewhere where it’s noisy. It helps keep me focused on the gum rather than the noise itself.