Hi
@aspi_scientist,
No, I don't think most people are as bothered by constant, interruptive noise as we are. As odd as it sounds, some people actually can't stand silence.
I work in a fairly noisy environment. It is a spacious room where cube-city has been arranged at varying heights, so it's somewhat aesthetically pleasing compared to other cube-cities where I've been installed.
Folks come and go, leaving anywhere from a busy handful to dozens of people in the office at any given time. I've noticed there is an ebb-and-flow to their chatter and I try to work with it as best I can. It helps to be able to anticipate when the office volume is going to raise significantly because sometimes I am able to be more selective about what tasks I tackle at those times. (And sometimes not.)
The number one thing I do that doesn't help is not getting enough sleep the night before. This is a challenge with my insomnia. It leaves me less able to filter the noise and more susceptible to being in a persnickety mood overall.
There are a number of things I do to help deal with the noise. First, earplugs. My boss (who I don't think is ND) wears the Loop and said they come in multiple decibel ratings. I haven't had the cash to buy a pair yet. Here's a review:
Finally, comfortable earplugs that don't cause me pain.
www.today.com
I'm still using bright orange foam earplugs. Folks around me are figuring out that they have to repeat themselves if they start talking at me until I take them out. Sure, I can hear them just fine, it's just that I'm focused on my work & the delay buys me a moment to adjust to the interruption. We have a lot of people at work who wear some sort of earplug.
On days when I just can't filter the noise at all, I'll stim at my desk--however obliquely I am able to--and I have a couple of fidgets that help, too. I figure I'm there to work and if I can't concentrate then I'm not working.
It helps that I work for a fairly progressive entity (we have a designated quiet place where you can go sit in the dark), that I am surrounded by at least three other autistics, that several co-workers have autistic children, and that many other staff have training in autism here, too. So it seems to me that nothing I've been doing thus far has given cause for alarm. But then again, if anyone does find it weird, I'll probably be the last to hear about it.
You might talk with your supervisor about moving to a quieter location.
One last thought. Maybe your space would be helped by one of these?
You can choose to deal constructively with your situation or challenge it and in doing so increase its negative effects. It's up to you. Your co-workers aren't there to understand you--they're there to work, just like you. If your anger at your situation is getting picked up by them, they'll most likely think it's them you're angry with, not their noise, and they're going to take it personally. You have no control over them or how they'll take things. But you do have control over how you respond to things that anger you. I hope you may find something here that's helpful.
Lastly,
They define themselves as "normal" just because they are the majority of the population.
Yeah, well, that's the definition of normal. To 'normalize' something is to standardize it or to cause it to be the mean against which deviations are measured, right? That would seem to be rather a basic, scientific principle...