Why does sound annoy persons with Autism?

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The noise is probably just of a frequency and volume that hurts his ears. I don't consider myself to have superior hearing to others, there are plenty of things I don't hear that others do. However, I generally prefer the volume on my headphones and speakers to be lower than most people are accustom to.

Otherwise, it just sounds too loud. Certain sounds at certain volumes might just be particularly grating on him, no differently than certain sounds at certain volumes might be for you.

It's just that the things that bother him might be different from the things that bother you.

I can't stand when forks scrape plates or teeth but this doesn't bother my roommate at all. Yet my roommate can hear when the dryer is on and I can't.

Yes! Sounds like phones ringing, car alarms, even people talking loudly, will echo in my head even after they've stopped. I only really notice that when it's one noise and it stops, but it makes sense that it's happening all along and just building up, which is why noisy environments are just a mass of confusion in which I can't make out anything at all.

It's definitely not possible to think in a noisy environment. I never thought it was possible for anyone.

hi.

Try teaching your son to block his ears by pushing a fingertip on the lobe of cartilage just in front of the ear canal (the bit between canal and eye) so that it closes over the canal. This is fast, comfortable and physically safe because it does not involve inserting anything into the ear itself. It is very effective for blocking out noise, especially sudden noise which happens too fast to find your earplugs!

Closing your ears like this is also a socially recognised and acceptable way of dealing with excessive or sudden noise.

When the ear canal is closed in this way, breathing and heartbeat become audible to the person, and this can help with re-focussing and relaxing.

It would have been very useful to me if someone had told me this when I was 7 years old.

Noise bothers me because:

* It disrupts my thinking and I lose whatever was on my mind
* It overwhelms me and I can't focus on anything else
* Some noises are physically painful
* Too much noise will actually "jangle" my other senses. A couple of weeks ago after my hearing was overstimulated, everything else bothered me much more than usual - touch and light sensitivity especially. I can normally handle light touches, but they were actually painful when this happened.
* All of this is emotionally upsetting, and if it gets bad enough and I can't easily get away from it, or I miss the build up before it goes too far, I'll have a shutdown. Before that happens I might start to have a meltdown. Unfortunately, in the winter, it is not feasible for me to sit outside until the several hours of noise subsides, and there's nowhere I can go without a car and nothing in walking distance.

Also, yes, it makes my autistic symptoms worse in general.

Last edited by Verdandi on 05 Jan 2011, 1:54 am, edited 1 time in total.

Noise, especially in a crowded environment, makes my autism worse.
I get flappy, mute and am unable to have clear thoughts. Not just having trouble thinking. Actual cognitive difficulties as though my intelligence has decreased.
Also, I get jerking limbs and hallucinations as well as tingling/ burning and other unpleasant symptoms.

Yes, it feels completely invasive, just like being touched without warning, or touched lightly. In that case, the feeling lingers more than it should. Noises tend to repeat themselves over and over for a little while. At least partly due to the lack of filtering, it's really difficult for me to concentrate and therefore think. I guess sometimes I could forget what I was thinking about. Can't think of a particular instance, though, so I don't really know.

Extreme sensitivity to loud sounds. How would you feel if you were standing in front of someone who had a bullhorn who switched it on two feet behind your head and started talking through it????

Some sounds are worse than others. For me it was the intercom, and the sound of gravel, dirt, coal, or snow being shoveled - when the shovel hit the pavement under the load I would just about lose my mind. It physically hurt.

That was 5 decades ago, though. In my teens and 20s I spent a lot of time with headphones hooked into a stereo playing rock music. I seem to have slowly increased the sound level there over the years until it was actually quite loud. Unfortunately, I've kind of fried out my hearing a bit.

There's also something about predictability of sound - if you know it's coming it's not as bad as when it just blasts you. And "blasts" can be anything from, for instance, the bullhorn scenario above to someone coughing to a knife scraping on china plates. It depends on how tightly one is wound that day already.

Hope this helps at least a little.

Last edited by Nan on 05 Jan 2011, 3:07 am, edited 1 time in total.

Oh, god, don't EVER listen to a massed pipe band .... you'll hear bagpipes for two days afterwards!

Speaking from experience?

Nan has the best avatar in all of time and space.

I think an NT can more easily screen out unwanted noises and become unaware of them. I can't usually do that. It's particularly infuriating because it messes with my focus, and focus is one of the few mental strengths I can lay claim to.

try to watch one of those very quiet videos full of butterflies and that end up with the scary maze girl screaming in your face...that's the feeling.

sound is something i can not make go away by ignoring it.
sounds that i dislike will pile drive their way into my head and it is not possible for me to look the other way to evacuate it from my sensorium.
bad sounds trespass on my soul because they are out there somewhere where i do not know, and i can not shut my ears to sound like i can shut my eyes to vision.

sound is very pervasive and it is hard to shut sound out.

As an NT person, I sometimes feel lost without sound. When I drive alone for long periods of time, I start to feel strange without sound. I will turn on the radio to listen to music or National Public Radio. Without these sounds, I feel like I am floating out of my body. I just desperately crave human contact.

Does anyone ever feel that they absolutely need sound for company? Or is this just an NT thing.

They're either painful or make me angry.

I used to complentate puncturing my ear drums and making myself deaf because sound was so bad for me. It was because often times it could not be escaped from.