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How do NT's hear?

L

louloulovesdogs

Active Member
So I've been processing a lot since being diagnosed, researching, watching videos, etc. And i'm trying to figure out what is a shutdown and meltdown and just like what those feel like in me. I've been looking at these simulators about what sensory overload is like or what autistic people hear when walking down the street to see if it can help me process everything. To me the simulators seem normal (obviously because I am autistic) but I guess I didn't realize that that's not how everyone hears and experiences the world, so I was wondering like how do NT's hear and experience senses. Anyone see any simulators or examples of what that's like?
 
I just asked my bf that question a few days ago while we walking back from getting milk. He couldn't really answer it. NTs must have a really different experience than me or they wouldn't do all the odd things they do.
 
What I am gathering is the difference between ND and NTs is that the latter just do not think about life in the way of: how am I behaving? Am I being too loud? Do people like me? Etc, they just don't think about it.

My husband who is an NT does not get sensory overload. He doesn't like loud music, but that is because he is now virtually death in one ear, but he wouldn't go into meltdown mode if the music was on going, he would just leave the room.

Lighting. Never mentions it at all.

So, to sum up again, NT's just get on with living.
 
From my understanding they only process the information they unconsciously deem note worthy.

For me if I'm watching a video on my phone and my mother talks at me from another room, I am almost immediately triggered and agitated. It's too much to process and I can't hear between one or the other, so it's like she just garbled my video, and I'm agitated.

To my partner, if I start talking they will either pause what their doing to listen, or ignore me because they aren't even processing what I'm saying. It's not something they were listening for so it's just static
 
Hmm, I never gave much thought to that. I understand that they hear less sounds and at a lower volume (no such thing as "the sound of shining lightbulbs" for an NT), but I need to find an NT for that. You know, one who's willing to talk to me :p
 
As somebody who experiences variable sensitivity perhaps I can answer this.

My analogy works much better if you have basic sound mixing experience. If you do not then please bear with me.

Imagine that you have a sound board, and each channel on that board is a single discrete sound source. Perhaps it is someone talking, a car, the beep of a cash ragister, it doesn't really mater, the point is that you are in a situation where you must process multiple sounds at one time. If you have sensory processing disorder then it's like all of your channels are set to the same volume so everything blurs together into one confusing cocophony. To many signals at once and you are bound to overload the soundboard all together.

For a neurotypical person (or me on most days) it is like they have a sound technician mixing everything they hear. Background noises get turned down whereas the subject of their focus (i.e. the person they are talking to, the TV program they are watching, ext.) gets turned up. Many channels will become entirely inaudible unless they intentionally focus on them. This eliminates extraneous information and prevents their circuits from overloading. The thing is, this process is so automatic they don't even realize they are doing it.

Personally; I find I often strain in noisy situations to direct my focus, but in those cases it is more like I am manually struggling with the soundboard as opposed to when I am over-sensitized and it seems like some cruel person has cranked every channel to 11. :eek:
 
That's a great analogy, Datura, I think that's how I'll be explaining it to people from now on. Thank you!
 
I'm an NT, and I agree with one of the above posters that I just don't really think about sounds that much in general. I don't enjoy loud annoying sounds like sirens or club music, but they don't distress me the way that they do my aspie boyfriend. I think most of us NTs have a natural filter that aspies just don't. Loud noises can kind of just go on in the background and I can continue on with my tasks, where a loud noise or overwhelming crowds will actually stop my aspie boyfriend in his tracks, he has no way to block it out.

Hopefully that answers your question a bit!
 
Suzanne said:
What I am gathering is the difference between ND and NTs is that the latter just do not think about life in the way of: how am I behaving? Am I being too loud? Do people like me? Etc, they just don't think about it.
Click to expand...

I'd say it's non-autistic people have those things running as a background process in their brain all the time, they know these things so well (or are simply so similar to most others that they can just project their own perceptions onto people and likely not be wildly incorrect) that they don't have to think about them consciously and explicitly, while when autistic people think about those things it's conscious and explicit and in the foreground thoughts.
 
Katleya said:
"the sound of shining lightbulbs" for an NT
Click to expand...

Nor "the sound of the dimmer switch".....

Apparently they don't hear the sound of their skin moving against the pillow at night, either, or their own heartbeat (unless they are really afraid ..... technically I am not hearing my own heartbeat either, I'm hearing the sound of my pulse in blood vessels near my eardrums, but I gather NTs don't hear that).
 
the_tortoise said:
Apparently they don't hear the sound of their skin moving against the pillow at night
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Short of being deaf, how could one not hear that? The subconscious processes of the brain truly are amazing. Most NTs have no concept of how much information their brain is actively deleting before it reaches their awareness.
 
the_tortoise said:
Nor "the sound of the dimmer switch".....

Apparently they don't hear the sound of their skin moving against the pillow at night, either, or their own heartbeat (unless they are really afraid ..... technically I am not hearing my own heartbeat either, I'm hearing the sound of my pulse in blood vessels near my eardrums, but I gather NTs don't hear that).
Click to expand...
Oh... I thought everybody heard those. The sound of blood pulsing can sometimes keep me up an entire night because it gets so loud :(
 
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