Sanctus wrote:
There are some noises that are extremely annoying to me, and some make me agressive to the brink of rage. Most of these noises have a "social aspect", such as annoying laughter, whispering, whistling, bad singing, shouting... but also stuff like fast cars or (VERY ANNOYING) lawn mowers and chainsaws.
Now, I live in a small village where, at least in summer, there's constantly someone mowing their lawn or using a chainsaw or whatever, and our neighbours sometimes have pretty loud parties at weekends. If I'm in a good mood I can bear it, but if not, these noises really infuriate me. I will try stuff something into my ears, cover them with hands, blankets, etc. I get agressive to people around me and insult the people responsible for the noise (when they can't hear me). Sometimes I even imagine killing or severely hurting them.
A few weeks ago, I guess I had my first real overload. I was in a bad mood anyways, and then someone started using a chainsaw in our street. At the same time my mother wanted to talk to me and just didn't notice how agressive I already was. At some point she got annoyed and asked my why I wouldn't talk normally to her, and I explained it was because of the noise. She kinda yelled at me for being so overly sensitive, and that was when it got too much. I felt like I was going to explode, my heart was racing and I felt like crying, I went to my room, locked it, covered my ears so I wouldn't hear anything and laid on my bed in fetal position for maybe half an hour. I even imagined I was still hearing the chainsaw, though I clearly couldn't. It took ages for me to calm down. After a while I could read a little, and then I walked around in the house again, but still with earplugs in. I took them out after maybe an hour and the noises were gone, but I felt overly sensitive for the rest of the day.. like my ears were actually hurt and raw.
Was that what you could describe as an overload? And do you share this extreme sensitiveness to noise? The strange thing is that stuff like rain, wind or thunder don't bother me at all, they're actually soothing and help me sleep.
I'm like you in that natural sounds, like rain, actually sooth me rather than annoy me but unnatural sounds can really irritate me! Last weekend, I kept trying to go outside with a book and soak up some sunshine and birdy sounds but it seemed like every time I tried, someone else would start a weeder, lawn mower, or some other high volume annoying machine. I actually go so irritated, I was talking out loud and that's when it dawned on me that I was headed into an overload situation. I went inside, watched a movie that I had seen before but like and petted the cat. Luckily I calmed down before it went too far. I can totally relate to what you are saying. I've often thought about how much more noise we deal with now that everyone and their brother owns a darn weeder and other such modern marvels.
26 Jun 2012, 9:10 am
