Noisy or quiet?

[Pats]

I think it's just me but sometimes people who make loud noises doing everything drives me absolutely up the wall. I'm quiet and my entire family is quiet. Being around loud talkers makes my ears hurt after a while. I can remember yelling at the kids getting too loud in the car (they weren't quiet when they were arguing and stuff) that my ears hurt and they'd quiet down some. I didn't know about the autism and it wasn't like an ear ache, but when things got too loud it's just felt painful somehow.

But what bothers me the most is when a person is SO vocal at everything they do. Anyone remember how Lucy would do her whaaaaa crying? I realize it was for theatrics, but I had a sister in law that actually would cry like that and I couldn't tolerate it. She'd call crying and I'd just have to hand the phone to my husband because I just could not listen to it. He was vocal in everything, too and it drove me crazy. I didn't realize that there were actually people that cried like that. I'm not talking about the stomach wrenching sobbing, I'm talking about the something didn't quite go your way and upset about it high pitched whaaaa that sounds completely fake and is usually without tears. And if anyone on here does that, I am very sorry for bringing it up. (please don't be mad at me. and, I have cried that gut wrenching bellowing cry that's uncontrollable.) I'm just a quiet person and don't understand making unnecessary noises.

I was just wondering if it was just me or if it was an autism thing? And how do you feel when you're around someone who's just loud doing anything?

 

[Judge]

It's another one of those dynamics that IMO tends to really define us as autistic people. Especially over really high- and really low pitched sounds in general.

It used to drive me bonkers at how I could observe everyone around me who always seemed do unaffected by so much external noise across the spectrum of sound. Made me feel really weird- and quite alone in how I perceive sound.

Worse lately in seeing these trends in offices making their immediate environment more "communal". No partitions with people sitting so close to one another than their elbows touch.

Yes- how we relate to such things (usually in horror) I believe just reflects our autism. And how we process sound so differently than our Neurotypical counterparts hearing the same sounds. But of course internal environments are subsequently regulated by their standards- not ours. Often to our detriment.

 

[Pats]

The world is a noisy enough place without people purposely adding to it. The two sounds that I have absolutely zero tolerance for are a car horn and a dog barking, especially those dogs that will bark nonstop for hours on end. I don't know how they can do that.

I also hate those sub-woofer speakers that yahoos put in their cars that you can hear coming from a mile away going "BOOM, BOOM, BOOM". There's some kid that drives down my street with a setup that literally rattles my windows and the pictures on my wall. I've been tempted to share a serious "BOOM" with him from the business end of my .54 caliber Hawken.

Another sound that really gets me is that scream that babies do. You know the one I'm talking about; it's the one comes out of nowhere and bores into the base of the skull like a corkscrew. It usually happens in church when everything is quiet and all of a sudden the baby sitting behind me will cut loose with that scream that sounds like a bobcat that has been set on fire.

So, with that said, I prefer quiet; and if I cannot have quiet, then at least let the noise be controlled.

I know the baby scream - I had 4 of them. I read once that their cry is just enough off pitch to get the needed attention. I believe it. And, yes, there were times I had to put the baby in the crib and close the door until I calmed down. It's torture and I admit it.
I agree with the other sounds, too.

 

[Pats]

It's another one of those dynamics that IMO tends to really define us as autistic people. Especially over really high- and really low pitched sounds in general.

It used to drive me bonkers at how I could observe everyone around me who always seemed do unaffected by so much external noise across the spectrum of sound. Made me feel really weird- and quite alone in how I perceive sound.

Worse lately in seeing these trends in offices making their immediate environment more "communal". No partitions with people sitting so close to one another than their elbows touch.

Yes- how we relate to such things (usually in horror) I believe just reflects our autism. And how we process sound so differently than our Neurotypical counterparts hearing the same sounds. But of course internal environments are subsequently regulated by their standards- not ours. Often to our detriment.

And ewwww with the office thing.

 

[Bolletje]

Loud people irk me when I’m feeling irritable. When I’m in good spirits it doesn’t bother me that much.
But when I’m in a bad mood... some days I feel like my boyfriend is a walking cacophony of bodily functions and clumsiness.

 

[Judge]

I don't believe I could deal with that arrangement. The noise would be bad enough, but combine that with coworkers who are odoriferous or the one who surreptitiously floats an air biscuit would make it unbearable.

Yep. Her work station is actually that physically close to the next.

Unbelievable- whatever one's neurological profile may be.

 

[Progster]

I don't like an excess of noise, either. Yappy dogs that won't stop barking, kids crying or squeeling, TV on loud all the time, especially playing sports, loud music in cafes or restaurants, people who talk very loudly, motorbikes. I don't tolerate nosie as well as most people, I can't block it out and it wears me down.

 

[Isadoorian]

Yeah, I don't mind some noise, but excessive can often times get on my nerves

 

[Carpe_Librum]

Any alarm or beeping, prolonged repetitive noises from anywhere - I cannot bear it. I have managed to control the response I have to these noises over the years but only because I was actively becoming depressed and anxious when a house alarm went off. Nowadays I repeat to myself "it cannot do that forever" and it calms me. Stops the jittery panic that comes from the intrusiveness of it. I only realised that my responses were different to others by watching "normal" irritation at noise as compared to my own anger/panic and other extreme reactions. The world is very noisy - in a not at all musical way. Oddly most again, typical people I know hate birdsong. Doesn't bother me at all. I find it quite soothing. Traffic noise as long as it is a smooth consistency is also pleasant to me.
But even the oven beeping can take a hike. ha.

 

[Pats]

Any alarm or beeping, prolonged repetitive noises from anywhere - I cannot bear it. I have managed to control the response I have to these noises over the years but only because I was actively becoming depressed and anxious when a house alarm went off. Nowadays I repeat to myself "it cannot do that forever" and it calms me. Stops the jittery panic that comes from the intrusiveness of it. I only realised that my responses were different to others by watching "normal" irritation at noise as compared to my own anger/panic and other extreme reactions. The world is very noisy - in a not at all musical way. Oddly most again, typical people I know hate birdsong. Doesn't bother me at all. I find it quite soothing. Traffic noise as long as it is a smooth consistency is also pleasant to me.
But even the oven beeping can take a hike. ha.

I've always enjoyed the sound of big semi trucks swooshing by.

 

[Carpe_Librum]

I've always enjoyed the sound of big semi trucks swooshing by.

And rain being repeatedly swooshed by car wheels. That's a good noise.

 

[Judge]

Having ambient sounds like rainfall and summer crickets, thunderstorms and whatnot used to help while trying to sleep.

At least until I got tinnitus in my right ear.

 

[Carpe_Librum]

Having ambient sounds like rainfall and summer crickets, thunderstorms and whatnot used to help while trying to sleep.

At least until I got tinnitus in my right ear.

I use heavy rainfall sound as my alarm. Trouble is while it means I could technically wake up without the anxiety caused by usual nonsense alarm sounds - I also, well, I stay asleep as it happily blares out of my phone.
"Sorry I am late I slept through a monsoon because it soothes me" isn't generally accepted by my boss.
Not sure why. As it seems entirely reasonable to me

 

[Pats]

Having ambient sounds like rainfall and summer crickets, thunderstorms and whatnot used to help while trying to sleep.

At least until I got tinnitus in my right ear.

Don't you hate it? I can't hear most of what people on tv are saying and people will turn up the volume and I tell them it's not the volume - I just can't hear over the crickets in my head. I think that's why I prefer sit coms - they speak clearer and don't mumble.

 

[Judge]

I use heavy rainfall sound as my alarm. Trouble is while it means I could technically wake up without the anxiety caused by usual nonsense alarm sounds - I also, well, I stay asleep as it happily blares out of my phone.
"Sorry I am late I slept through a monsoon because it soothes me" isn't generally accepted by my boss.
Not sure why. As it seems entirely reasonable to me

Mine is made by Homedics. It just plays such ambient sounds independently. As a clock radio, it uses a more conventional alarm I never use.

 

[Judge]

Don't you hate it? I can't hear most of what people on tv are saying and people will turn up the volume and I tell them it's not the volume - I just can't hear over the crickets in my head. I think that's why I prefer sit coms - they speak clearer and don't mumble.

It's beginning to well...break my heart. And yes- interfere with my ability to hear sound. Just thought about it the other day in terms of complex television sound. Funny to think of how primitive tv sound once was.

But either way, with this ringing in my ear at times it does make hearing itself a bit more difficult.

 

[Pats]

I use heavy rainfall sound as my alarm. Trouble is while it means I could technically wake up without the anxiety caused by usual nonsense alarm sounds - I also, well, I stay asleep as it happily blares out of my phone.
"Sorry I am late I slept through a monsoon because it soothes me" isn't generally accepted by my boss.
Not sure why. As it seems entirely reasonable to me

I used to use a favorite cd to wake up to but a couple times I continued to sleep and just thought, wow - what cool music.

 

[Judge]

I used to use a favorite cd to wake up to but a couple times I continued to sleep and just thought, wow - what cool music.

Yep, kind of like an improved snooze button.

Or not.

 

[Autistamatic]

Human noise really bothers me - people talking, especially when it's shrill! There are definitely some inconsiderate, loud people around who not only talk too loud, but slam and crash everything, stomp like an elephant and generally try to get noticed through noise.
I've worked in workshops full of high speed grinding machines that make a tremendous racket that never bothered me once, and I've worked in open plan offices which are barely tolerable.

 

[Fino]

Too much noise makes me feel a lot of bad things, two of them being anger and anxiety. It's one of the main reasons I can never have dogs or children.