SPD/Phobia of Specific Sounds/Loud Sounds

Page 1 of 1 [ 6 posts ] 

Noodle1331
Hummingbird
Hummingbird

User avatar

Joined: 29 Sep 2014
Age: 32
Gender: Female
Posts: 21
Location: canada

26 Oct 2014, 5:02 pm

I've always been very sensitive to sound since I was a kid, it's been a curse and a blessing. It's been useful as a musician since I can't read notes, but it also can be very embarrassing. I remember whenever I used the washroom I would cover my ears and use my foot to flush the toilet because the sound scared me and i'd start crying. ( i still do this on days when i'm more sensitive) The first time I ever heard an air-raid siren (around 7) I had a panic attack. The second time i heard it in 8-9 grade in social studies class, I covered my ears, started hyperventilating, hid under my desk and cried. When i was younger i was afraid of the vacuum-cleaner and would cry when my mom made me do it, i was also afraid of the hair-dryer and cried whenever it came near me so i never started using one till about grade 9. Now when i get up in the mornings i'm usually, mostly non-verbal for the first little while and any kind of sound especially getting a shower and then drying my hair after makes me really jumpy and nervous (the whole time i have the hair dryer on i get that "hairs on the back of your neck stand up"or "you're heart dropping into your stomach" feeling.) ( I've also accidentally hit my mother because while i was drying my hair she walked into the room and scared me). And i also get really angry when there's too much noise. like if there's something noisy happening and someones trying to talk to me ill get really frustrated and probably yell or cry.
I was once in my crushes car and when he started it he forgot he had loud music playing and it frightened me so much i started sobbing and when he asked if i was okay i couldn't respond verbally. It was really embarrassing even though he knows i'm autistic and wasn't bothered by it. The recent one i developed was last year my mom bought me an alarm clock so she wouldn't have to get up so early to wake me up. more towards the ending of the year i became so anxious because of school i couldn't sleep knowing i had to go the next morning and the only time i slept was Friday and Saturday nights. So when my alarm clock went off i would instantly have a panic attack. I got rid of it but (since its a very popular pitch for alarms) whenever someone in public's watch goes off or something else that sounds similar I hold my breath and try not to have a panic attack.

Does anyone else have something similar to this? Know anyways to stop the fear? Or just want to discuss or talk about your own experiences.
Thanks!



conundrum
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 25 May 2010
Age: 44
Gender: Female
Posts: 2,922
Location: third rock from one of many suns

26 Oct 2014, 5:29 pm

Smoke detectors with loud buzzers. There was one of those in my former apartment, and the least little thing would set it off (steam from a shower, burnt toast...you get the idea). I couldn't stand to walk under it without flinching...I was afraid THAT would set it off.

The one in my current place has a loud-ish beep, but that doesn't bother me as much (maybe because it's less likely to go off for no reason).


_________________
The existence of the leader who is wise
is barely known to those he leads.
He acts without unnecessary speech,
so that the people say,
'It happened of its own accord.' -Tao Te Ching, Verse 17


sm97
Butterfly
Butterfly

User avatar

Joined: 20 May 2014
Gender: Female
Posts: 12

14 Jun 2016, 12:34 pm

Yes, I do. Have you heard of those toys that make a monophonic like sound? those hurt my ears like crazy, like that sound in the rotating birthday candle.



C2V
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 7 Apr 2015
Posts: 2,666

14 Jun 2016, 9:24 pm

Misophonia?
I'm the same on the toilet flushing (hate this) vacuum cleaner, hair dryer, traditional alarms, etc.
Don't have the same response as you - I tend to run away / avoid or attack the source of the sound, but for similar reasons. I think all you can do with this is work around it - I vacuum with earplugs in, don't flush the toilet every time and just do so when needed and cover my ears, wear earplugs to sleep and have the alarm set on my phone to just a normal ringing sound, etc. Unless you were willing to try one of those desensitisation therapy type approaches which may or may not work on autistics (and sounds horrible anyway) you can just compensate.
There's a stack of things you have to compensate for around misophonia - I'm still dreaming of a pair of high quality noise cancelling headphones.


_________________
Alexithymia - 147 points.
Low-Verbal.


Alexinwonderland
Yellow-bellied Woodpecker
Yellow-bellied Woodpecker

Joined: 11 May 2016
Gender: Female
Posts: 58
Location: United Kingdom

17 Jun 2016, 8:38 pm

Yes I cannot stand loud noises either such as when I go shopping and hear a baby crying, someone shout, a car honking etc I get a pain in the sides of my stomach/my curves and then get anxious. However, I am fine with loud music at gigs etc, maybe its because I have mentally prepared myself for the noise and the other sounds feel like a threat? I dunno really.



Tiankay
Sea Gull
Sea Gull

User avatar

Joined: 27 Apr 2016
Age: 29
Gender: Male
Posts: 205
Location: 3rd Street on the right, just after the event horizon...

17 Jun 2016, 8:52 pm

Oh there was one. In the house i was born in, we had the fire siren for our village on the roof. Every 2 weeks it had a test run an saturday. i was really afraid of it and i didnt understood where that terrible loud sound came from so i paniced. The only thing i understood that it always happened when i was staring out of the kitchen window. I was doing that quite alot back then. So by sometime i was convinced that this loud monster was a punishment for me looking out of that window too much :D

Peace
TK