silence is suffocating

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hey,

does anyone find silence unbearable, I start to feel out of control when there is no noise, exams are torture and I have to sleep with a radio on, I was wondering if anyone else feels the same.

Wow. I love silence. I need silence. In fact I am incredibly noise sensitive and would freak out if there's a radio on when I want to sleep.

Oh, yes, yes, and YES.

Silence makes me feel anything ranging from anxiety to irritation to something bordering on rage.

I hate silence.

yeah its awful, how have you coped with things like exams, i do manage it but it takes 20 min to calm down enough to actually do the exam, im sure its affected my marks in some cases.

Sometimes it feels that way, which is why I like to have music playing most of the time. Silence seems so stagnant and somehow irritating. If there is white noise, though, I'll hear music in it.

its funny, white noise i dont like either really, i only listen to the radio, i also hate people breathing and making little noises when i try to sleep, i honestly feel like punching whoever is making the noise.

I guess I am quite the opposite. I love/need silence ;p

I move my lower jaw back and forth really quickly and my teeth hitting together make a clicking noise. Or I bounce my leg very fast, or slightly raise my feet of the ground and bounce them off each other. I have to do some kind of physical activity or I will burst.

I have a horrible problem at work because one person said it is "unprofessional" to listen to music in the business place (I am in a back office, no one but my coworkers are ever there), and so I can't listen to music. It effects my productivity and on days when others are in the office, I have to refrain from lashing out at them for simple things like breathing and swallowing. I feel irrationally angry at them. If I were allowed to listen to music, this would not happen because my brain could focus on that noise instead of the breathing noises.

I find myself almost wholly unable to concentrate without some kind of regular background noise. I hear every noise (cars, doors opening and closing, people walking, people typing, pencils writing, etc) with what must be exaggerated clarity and it prevents me from even keeping my thoughts organized. It's like my train of thought is interrupted by each out-of-place noise and I have to back up and start over. My frustration builds because of this and eventually I am so irritated that I can't accomplish anything.

I find exceedingly few people understand this. It can be very lonely because it seems like most people on the spectrum (and in general life) have low tolerance extraneous noise.

I do agree on background noise, but only if it is very constant. I like the sounds of rain or things like fans and the humming sound a fridge makes, for example. And my brain gets irritated by background noise in the same way. I also tend to make movements in that case, or I might explode. But still total silence would be my definite favourite.

i totally understand how you feel, im currently in college and thankfully i am allowed to listen to music while working but obviously college means exams, i find i can calm down by, as you said bouncing my leg fast, i also fiddle with things like pens or tapping, but people dont like you too make any noise in exams, it makes me want to scream. and little noises are awful especially breathing.

im not actually diagnosed with anything in the autistic spectrum so im not quite sure why the silence upsets me so much,. but as for the music i dont know what i would do with out my mp3 player, i take it everywhere, especially while travelling.

Absolute silence provokes what can best be described as anxiety for me. The random little noises cause irritability.

Seems weird, though. I mean - silence actually means that there's nothing around that could cause you harm, doesn't it? Though I guess some kind of constant noise gives a sense of security.

For me it's mainly that I hate, hate, HATE any sound caused by humans. Talking, laughing, sneezing, slamming doors, TV or radio sounds... I'm okay with giant thunderstorms and even traffic noise.

the little human noises are very annoying, i dont mind things like building work though, i find that quite comforting.

Nor am I. I consider it to be part of my ADD and generally wonky wiring. My brain is very busy, very noisy, and very...well...scattered or fragmented. Lots of stuff going on all at the same time. I find that things like music or similar consistent background noises helps me organize my brain, or at least stick to the trains of thought I am interested in while allowing me to ignore the trains of thought I do not want to attend to. Like "who's breathing so hard?" "Why must people swallow so loud?" "That was the second semi-truck to drive by in the past minute" etc. It's almost like the distractible part of my brain gets mesmerized by the music and doesn't "hear" the rest of the stuff going on. Without the music, I am constantly interrupted by noticing the refrigerator in the next room's motor starting up. Stuff like that.

But yes, people noises are the worst.

One time one of my office mates was sucking on a tootsie roll pop.

I honestly felt like hitting her at one point. The slobbery sound mixed with the sound of it hitting her teeth and the occasional sucking noises were infuriating.

I totally realize that my feelings of anger are 100% inappropriate. But that doesn't stop me from feeling them and what is really funny is that people pretty much unanimously refer to me as "exceptionally calm."

Little do they know the rage that boils under the surface! LOL!

A question, since we're talking about annyoing noise: what do you do against the agression? I feel like it becomes more and more everytime I have to listen to some distressing "people noise", and I really have to hold back so I don't yell at anyone.