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Sound Sensitivities

TouhouFan28

TouhouFan28

Member
Anyone else have like a specific sound that makes them physically react?
For me it's the rubbing of plastic water bottles against eachother and the squishing/crunching of Styrofoam. It sends like sharp tingles all around my body and I physically recoil at it. Unfortunately it makes me really irritated and I get all irrational and impulsive oopsies...
 
I am sound sensitive. I cannot easily describe the sorts of sounds but they are always full sounds. When there are loud full sounds I find I cannot think of anything at all and quite often I cannot move. I feel trapped. If I put my hands over my ears I can recover. The paralysis during full sound is very disturbing. It is like I am drowning because I can't breathe for a moment or two. I think my sound sensitivity alone is what determines whether an environment is safe or not.

Before the invention of personal stereos I had a terrible time with sound sensitivity. Then after I could use music to reduce the momentary paralysis and panic I found I could manage better outdoors. I usually set one track to repeat and it is most often something classical or else a gentle main theme from a movie. As the music repeats it helps me revisit thoughts that were ruined by noise. It sort of helps me 'mend' my memory.
 
TouhouFan28 said:
Anyone else have like a specific sound that makes them physically react?
For me it's the rubbing of plastic water bottles against eachother and the squishing/crunching of Styrofoam. It sends like sharp tingles all around my body and I physically recoil at it. Unfortunately it makes me really irritated and I get all irrational and impulsive oopsies...
Click to expand...
I cannot tolerate screaming infants. Not the child's fault, but I can't be around it. Had to tolerate it when I had an infant of my own. Talk about challenging.
 
I'm very sensitive to some particular high frequencies - they hurt. The pain isn't in my ears though, it's in the middle of my skull, feels like someone's pushing a steel spike through my brain. Small babies hit that note perfectly, old and worn out electric leaf blowers and vacuum cleaners do too. And the screeching feedback when someone holds a microphone in front of a speaker.

Other than that I also have the standard Audio Processing Disorder where I have trouble separating sounds in a noisy environment and can't hear people speaking if there's too much other noise. I hate phones.
 
I get pretty bad misophonia and I’m hypersensitive to eating and mouth noises. Those are some of the worst sounds I can hear and they stick around inside my head for hours on a bad day.
 
Leaf blowers, electric hand dryers, and skill saws are straight from the depths of Hell. As are young child/baby screams.

Then there's intermittent but repetitive noises like the dog barking half a mile away at night.
 
Some loud noises I can tolerate, I like listening to loud music, and I do fine at parties, nightclubs, concerts, sports games, etc.
Our hockey team's games are typically in small arenas with very loudly chanting, cheering crowds and I don't find it too distracting or get annoyed. Don't know why, as other loud sounds drive me nuts.

But I second not tolerating kids/babies screaming, I'm glad I don't (and can't) have kids lol. Nothing against babies or children but the sound really hurts my ears and puts me on edge.

If my dog barks very loudly I get upset too because it's very painful in my ears as well.

Not a fan of people chewing loudly, making mouth sounds, or smacking their lips either. Ew.

Ambulances, fire trucks, police sirens etc also hurt my ears and make them feel like they're bleeding.

People talking loudly on the phone on those car radio phone speakers bothers me too. I never connect my phone to my car unless it's to play music. You can even hear those things if you're driving next to a car that's using it.

Airplane toilets annoy the crap out of me and also kind of scare me.

I think that's it lol
 
My tolerance of low frequency sounds is getting worse. With a new tenant and their large truck starting early in the morning, coming back very late in the evening. Each time he guns his engine it leaves me on my ceiling, with no one to peel me off it. :mad:
 
TouhouFan28 said:
Anyone else have like a specific sound that makes them physically react?
For me it's the rubbing of plastic water bottles against eachother and the squishing/crunching of Styrofoam. It sends like sharp tingles all around my body and I physically recoil at it. Unfortunately it makes me really irritated and I get all irrational and impulsive oopsies...
Click to expand...

Drums and saxophone (unfortunately both are very loud and harsh in bad rooms acoustically)
Styrofoam big time.
Raking leaves on asphalt.
Brushing teeth.
Clinking cutlery and plates.
Whispering
S's and T's on a microphone (sibilance)
Tinny phone speakers
Old CRT TV whines
Any ads
Aggressively loud mastering practices on modern entertainment media

Some of these sounds give me shivers, some give me ear ache, some actually hurt, and cause the muscle in my ear to constrict.

I was diagnosed with hyperacusis, a reduced tolerance to everyday sounds. It happened during the stress of intense study for exams.
 
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Probably quite a few, but the one that comes to mind is the squeaking sound that green beans make if they're not really, really well cooked. It turns something that tastes good into something that's not enjoyable to eat.
 
thejuice said:
Drums and saxophone (unfortunately both are very loud and harsh in bad rooms acoustically)
Styrofoam big time.
Raking leaves on asphalt.
Brushing teeth.
Clinking cutlery and plates.
Whispering
S's and T's on a microphone (sibilance)
Tinny phone speakers
Old CRT TV whines
Any ads
Aggressively loud mastering practices on modern entertainment media

Some of these sounds give me shivers, some give me ear ache, some actually hurt, and cause the muscle in my ear to constrict.

I was diagnosed with hyperacusis, a reduced tolerance to everyday sounds. It happened during the stress of intense study for exams.
Click to expand...
Omg, how could I forget Styrofoam? That's one of the worst!
 
TouhouFan28 said:
Anyone else have like a specific sound that makes them physically react?
For me it's the rubbing of plastic water bottles against eachother and the squishing/crunching of Styrofoam. It sends like sharp tingles all around my body and I physically recoil at it. Unfortunately it makes me really irritated and I get all irrational and impulsive oopsies...
Click to expand...
I wasn't going to share because I dont ever think what I write is helpful but at the off chance this will be helpful its worth it.🤷‍♀️

I am extremely sensitive to sound both because of my ASD and because of my lingering TBI (and because of having many TBIs from playing sports). Things like high frequency noises bother me making my body feel like it is being crushed, making me feel physically ill and even impairing my vision. I often wear loop ear plugs to filter sound so I can distinguish noise without having a physical reaction. Since I can hear EVERYTHING all at once and it is like white noise sometimes. Other negative reaction to sound can be triggered by someones voice. A persons laugh. A zipper catching. A scratchy pencil on paper. The way someone breathes or chews. The way someones rough hand sounds running across fabric. If someone has music or a movie at the wrong volume. And many more very specific little things. Not sure if any of that makes sense. But there are so many triggers for me. And they elicit a reaction that I can't even put words to. All I know is it is awful. Especially if the noise was not my choice. It often leaves me with a sound hangover the next day and symptoms of post concussion syndrome. PCS
 
Wow I have a lot. Mostly it seems to be high-pitched noises. The first one I can think of is the clinking of dishes in the sink or drain rack. Someone mentioned a baby crying, that gets me too. And there are women singers that I can't listen to because their voice is just too grating and high-pitched.
 
My wife enjoys watching clips of contestants of The Voice on YouTube and she is partial to screechy vocalists who were somehow missed by the roving death squads. I get a lot of side-eye because I put on noise cancelling headphones when she starts this.
 
Yes and I won't go into them all as I get the shivers just thinking about it. Styrofoam is particularly bad and one of the all time worst for me is the sound of open mouth chewing. Can't do it. I sometimes feel guilty about that one as my aunt whom passed away a few years ago towards the end had had a mini stroke and it impacted her ability to eat. I just couldn't be in the room with her when she ate, and so when at family meals etc, I'd always find some way to excuse myself to eat elsewhere. At the time though I didn't really understand what was going as I still wasn't aware about the audhd.
 
I never could stand the sound of balloons bursting. Thunder also still bothers me sometimes. I often cover my ears in the subway station when the trains go by.
 
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