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Help For My Sensitive Hearing! Do Noise-Reducing Autism Earmuffs REALLY Exist, or Are They Just A Ri

Should I Just Give Up or Keep Searching?

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    6
Ylva said:
For a reason, I'm sure. Same reason I don't drive.
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Traffic stops are just another form of government revenue-gathering. While some stops are quite legitimate, others may not be. We don't have personal income tax here...so the authorities have to get creative in finding other ways to shake down citizens for added revenue.

Compounded by some forms of inattentive driving that are more permissible in one part of the metropolitan area than another. It's messy. :rolleyes:

Then again multitasking of any kind while driving can be inherently hazardous. I know...I've done most of them myself. :eek:
 
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Do you have any problem with them looking different?
I would TOTALLY wear some sort of ear protection in school (I get really scared when I'm in the hallways there's way too many people!) But I don't like to wear anything other than earbuds, once I wore heavier ear protection to school and the weird looks and sniggering was worse than just putting up with it.
But I can see how you would still want them, I think you should look for some kind of headphones that construction workers wear
 
I can't drive without something to block out the loud engine. Otherwise, I'd end up going into a meltdown and crash! IDC If the headphones are noticeable. I'll do ANYTHING to not suffer torture for at least one day. I'm looking for earmuffs or earplugs. I already have headphones, but they don't help for stuff like going in stores, and I DEFINITELY can't use them during college classes. That's why I'm looking for earmuffs or earplugs for VERY sensitive hearing, so I can work in class or drive or even relax at home without going into into a complete meltdown and breaking stuff at home because of the constant roaring engines and popping/squeaking high-pitched noises torturing me nonstop all day. I'm in the middle of a meltdown right now! These damn roaring engines won't leave me alone!!!
 
How about noise cancelling earplugs (yes those do exist and idk how good those are) in combination, so below, earmuffs
 
I use polyurethane earplugs with a 30-something decibel rating. They quiet the world down, but I can still hear quite well through them and for some frequencies they are almost useless.

An audiologist recommended I get high-quality musicians earplugs tailored to filter out the frequencies that bother me most, but I have never tried them.....they are expensive and I have heard mixed things about how well they work.
 
I have some 3M Peltor that I've modified for sound. It was pretty easy really, just filed a hole and ripped apart some old headphones.

I'm going to upgrade them once I find a high quality, audiophile set I can butcher.

I only use them around the house personally, but they cut out a lot of noise at all frequencies, and for me they are fine. After a few hours they get hot though, and that causes enough sensory issues so I have to take them off.

They don't look much like headphones either, and I'd be a bit self conscious wearing them out an about.

I've also noticed that I have much more sensitive hearing in my left ear, so I'm going to try a single ear plug.

Shopping I have ear phone most of the time, but sometimes I need the volume higher than I'd like.
 
- my daily go to's are noise cancelling headphones, if things are bad i put brown noise through them
- my sleeping go to's are made to measure silicone earplugs

for absolute silence, my silicone earplugs with the noise cancelling headphones over them
 
a cheaper solution are the orange plugs with a pair of 3M ear defenders
i actually managed to get extra foam in the defenders to insulate even more
 
I'm a professor of acoustics. As others have said, you certainly can get ear defenders that will reduce levels by around 30 dB, which should feel significantly quieter. Peltor and 3M (amongst others) are reputable brands. As someone else said, you could also try wearing both disposable earplugs and ear defenders, for up to 50 dB total reduction. That's what some military personnel do in some situations. However, you won't achieve silence for two reasons. The first is bone conduction. Once you reduce the level coming through your ears by about 55 dB you can still hear loud external sounds because sound is transmitted directly through your skull to your inner ear. The second reason is that I think a lot of the problem of autistic sound sensitivity is how our attention works, not our ears. We notice more and sometimes it feels like we notice too much and can't stop it. Reducing the level of all external sound isn't necessarily going to make it less noticeable. For example, when people (NTs as well as autistic) spend a few minutes in my anechoic chamber, where the background sound level is well below the quietest sound they can hear, they usually report hearing their own breathing as very loud. After a further while, many people can then hear blood flow through vessels near their ears. So if you have a functioning inner ear I don't think you can be rid of sound.
 
AuBurney Tuckerson said:
I can hear the fridge sometimes. I can even hear when the air vent comes on! But I'm not sure any earplugs would work. I've been wearing some regular orange foam ones for years bought from Walmart, and I can easily hear right through them.
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Sometimes people don't get very good attenuation with the squashy earplugs because they don't know how to fit them. This page shows the correct method:
How To Wear Soft Foam Earplugs
 
interaural said:
I'm a professor of acoustics. As others have said, you certainly can get ear defenders that will reduce levels by around 30 dB, which should feel significantly quieter. Peltor and 3M (amongst others) are reputable brands. As someone else said, you could also try wearing both disposable earplugs and ear defenders, for up to 50 dB total reduction.
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Thanks for quantifying this in terms of total decibels and noise reduction. I've been wondering about this for some time as to how effective using both may actually be. And such a relatively low cost solution compared to more sophisticated technologies.
 
Oh I'm sorry if I offended you.
I realize sensory issues vary in intensity. I can usually get by without too much trouble, as long as I just take a few minutes to ground myself. But I realize it might not be this simple for everyone.
I'm sorry if I was being insensitive.
I truly hope you find something that helps a bit!
 
Horsegirl said:
Oh I'm sorry if I offended you.
I realize sensory issues vary in intensity. I can usually get by without too much trouble, as long as I just take a few minutes to ground myself. But I realize it might not be this simple for everyone.
I'm sorry if I was being insensitive.
I truly hope you find something that helps a bit!
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Thanks. I saw these Pelt or ear defenders on amazon for only $12.99, and I was wondering if anyone here has bought them, and if so, so they work? I saw over a thousand reviews, and most of the reviews said they helped people with their autistic or SPD kids. Idk if they will work for me as I have VERY sensitive hearing. I'm still waiting for my diagnosis, and that could take forever!
 
interaural said:
I'm a professor of acoustics. As others have said, you certainly can get ear defenders that will reduce levels by around 30 dB, which should feel significantly quieter. Peltor and 3M (amongst others) are reputable brands. As someone else said, you could also try wearing both disposable earplugs and ear defenders, for up to 50 dB total reduction. That's what some military personnel do in some situations. However, you won't achieve silence for two reasons. The first is bone conduction. Once you reduce the level coming through your ears by about 55 dB you can still hear loud external sounds because sound is transmitted directly through your skull to your inner ear. The second reason is that I think a lot of the problem of autistic sound sensitivity is how our attention works, not our ears. We notice more and sometimes it feels like we notice too much and can't stop it. Reducing the level of all external sound isn't necessarily going to make it less noticeable. For example, when people (NTs as well as autistic) spend a few minutes in my anechoic chamber, where the background sound level is well below the quietest sound they can hear, they usually report hearing their own breathing as very loud. After a further while, many people can then hear blood flow through vessels near their ears. So if you have a functioning inner ear I don't think you can be rid of sound.
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That makes sense.

I used to wear ear plugs when I rode a motorcycle, but I'd still get ringing in my ears from the wind noise ( I suspect it still damaged my hearing a bit).

I have one ear that's much more sensitive to overload sounds, but I did a hearing test yesterday, and the ear itself is no more sensitive than my right ear. So it must be the way my brain filters the sounds.

The attention thing is interesting - I've read a lot about autism being a lack of filtering, but it could also be the strength of attention.

I know I'm much more aware of what's going on all around me than NTs are, and all my senses are at work in providing that information.
 
All my senses have been "heightened" from birth. For years, I didn't like touching certain things (I feel I have to scrape/scratch my feet every time I step in something sticky until the feeling goes away, and I can't stand wear shoes which is why I walk on the sides of my feet in them. No, I'm not proud of that, but I'm proud that I like being barefoot around the house and in the yard anyway. My mother is paranoid of germs and glass since we stay at a duplex, soon have to wear shoes going to the dumpster, and at the dumpster, I see why. -shudders-). Also, I've always been oversensitive to smell (I LITERALLY hold my breath as long as I can when I'm using the bathroom or near a dumpster or trashcan. Either that, or I'll spray air freshener in a ball of tissue and breathe through that, so I'd smell nothing but the fragrance. Also, I use a lot of air freshener because I smell every single odor. Ask my mother.). My sensitive hearing didn't come until I turned 14 because I was always clogged up, and I had tubes in my ears, but because I was unable to cope (and basically went into meltdowns during the 8th grade to the point I was crying and banging my head while people either thought it was funny or stared at me), I decided to wear earplugs, but that only worked for a very short time as my sensitive hearing for worse and worse. I've been to audiologists, ENTs, and through CAT scans to find out that it was not hyperacusis, so I tried not wearing earplugs for a while, but my hearing continued to get more sensitive, and everything just got worse, so I learned the hard way that I cannot stop wearing earplugs and just taking them off didn't help as people say that my ears should get used to it. It didn't work. Pink noise didn't work, and finally, I just had to assume I was just cursed. When I looked at autism (because my mother kept mentioning it, and I finally decided to look up what she meant), I found all the signs and figured that everything listed it what I went through my whole life, including sensitivity through my senses. That explains why I end up chewing on my shirts after they come out the wash because of the delicio--I mean, fragrant detergent. It all made sense, and here I am now, awaiting diagnosis and callback for follow-up.
 
Graphin said:
Just a note: decibels aren't linear
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This isn't very meaningful without a bit more context. If you mean that the relationship between sound pressure level, measured in decibels, and sound pressure, measured in Pascals, is not linear, then yes, that's true. We define SPL based on the logarithm of pressure because we want SPL to model how changes in our loudness sensation are roughly proportional to the log of changes in pressure.

On the other hand, if you mean that I shouldn't add insertion losses (in dB) like ear defender (30) + earplug (20) = total loss (50), then you're wrong. Linear addition of insertion losses works well enough to give us an estimate of the total loss.

(Sorry if this comes across as aggressive, I don't always know where to stop with acoustics.)
 
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