Hypersensitivity to laughter

Post Reply New Topic

This is a strange kind of topic for me to talk about so please be patient with me.

I've found through out my childhood and even now to an extent that I feel when people around me begin to laugh it's been directed at me out of cruelty or because of what other people have said to them about me (rumormongering basically). Now I know that not everyone is out to "get at me" and I know I shouldn't care what others think (so don't bring up the "you shouldn't care" arguement, it just frustrates me) but I cannot seem to help myself feeling that it is, to back this up I begin to sweat and go red in the face which I cannot help doing for some reason. Would you consider this to be a symptom of my AS or a pre-coded reaction to the verbal bullying I put up with in school?

I think I've experienced something similar...a paranoia in all contact with people, even just seeing strangers across the street and assuming that they hate me. It is probably not a normal symptom of AS, though it may be related somehow. I see it more as an avoidant-borderline personality disorder thing. Bullying definitely make it worse. If you aren't seeing a psychologist, please find one. These issues really are hell, especially transitioning into college or whatever you'll do, and they can always get worse.

Thanks, I know what you mean about the paranoia of contact, it's something I feel even as I write this, well, it a manner of speaking - I don't know, it's confusing.

I would go find help but my experiences with that type of service in the past have been pretty...negative, in a sense. What do you do to combat these feelings?

I don't know what your experience has been with psychotherapy. Would you like to describe it, please?

I try to combat emotions a little by...interrogating/arguing with them, finding the reasons I feel the way I do and honestly determining their validity. The first wave of emotion is completely outside of your control, but then your mind can kick in and stabilize your emotions. What doesn't help is when I feel the wave of emotion and then say things that intensify that emotion, often without a logical basis. One of the best things I've thought about is just how to improve my current situation.

edit:I think I just failed to answer the question xD ...I'll try to answer it when I think I understand what you feel.

Sometimes I feel that way, but at age 43, I'm probably a lot less bothered by that feeling than I was when I was a lot younger. Sometimes I join in laughter with myself as the object, because some of the stuff I do is indeed funny. If the people laughing at (or about) me are friends with my best interest at heart, it's not a problem. If they're strangers looking at me as if I'm an idiot, naturally it's not fun, but it won't ruin my day.

Charles

I'm sorry, I don't feel comfortable doing so I suppose I have trust issues, please don't take that the wrong way.

I'll try that then, thanks. To be honest I don't think there's anything there that could impede me but it'd make being around people (especially young people I find it worse with) a little more comfortable, y'know?

I don't trust anyone either, but on the 'net, I don't need to.

Maybe there is a little bit of information I can give for that question...I'm seeing a shrink because I often contemplate suicide, I usually work at about 5% efficiency, my parents are strangely willing to pay for it, and I've never had a positive long-term relationship(friend). I have gone to a couple of really stupid psychologists as a child, but they never looked beyond the surface, but nor could they while drowning in my parents. I don't expect my shrink to care about me or give me unique advice, but I do expect some understanding of my problem, so they don't go about giving time-outs to depressed people for being catatonic instead of studying. Ah, the subtleties of fail.

True enough. I suppose it's because I realize that they're people first and foremost no matter what title you stick on them, and people are fallible. I was in with depression, it was how my AS was diagnosed, I don't know if you'd call that "therapy" or not, it just seemed to open up a whole new can of B/S to be honest. I really should go see a doc but I doubt they'd refer me, last time was special circumstances (refusing to go to school, threatening suicide, self-harm).

I hate the sound of laughter. It hurts my ears.

if I know what the laughter is about I can stomache it...unless I am not comfortable with the laugh (alot of the time)

however if it is laughter out of the blue that I do not know its origin whether right next to me or 100 feet away it angers me and bugs me that I cannot figure out the logic behind the laugh and it would probably cause more problems if I were to find out the reason for it.

I hate loud soprano voice and laughter.

before reading this i assumed you meant hypersensitivity to the sound of laughter. i think i have felt this thing you're talking about - i have trouble identifying motives, humor, etc so sometimes i wonder if there is an inside joke at my expense ..

but maybe you also have PTSD. i have read that a lot of people with AS also have PTSD and in some cases it is from many years of being bullied. don't know if this makes sense or not.

I hate it when young women look at me, and than they start laughing. They're just jealous, because I'm better looking than they are, though.