Sensitivity to sounds (other than loud noises)

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Kon
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28 Dec 2010, 4:39 pm

one-A-N wrote:

From the standpoint of occupational therapy, these types of sound sensitivity are probably both regarded as sub-types of sensory integration disorder, or sensory processing disorder. It is common for people with misophonia, for example, to report having other types of sensory sensitivity - such as touch or light sensitivity.

That's me. Misophonia and touch/light/smell sensitivity. It's far worse when I'm trying to focus. I feel like beating the crap out of everybody around me and make them suffer slowly and painfully. And then I feel bad about it once the sensory issues dissipitate.

Joe90
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28 Dec 2010, 4:48 pm

I'm confused with the touch sensory, because I'm always hearing NTs complain about itchy clothes.

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28 Dec 2010, 4:50 pm

adifferentname wrote:

-The clearly audible humming and buzzing of virtually all electronic equipment that everybody else claims they cannot hear.

GOD, I used to hear ALL electronics. NOW, I really don't. So I would say they are telling the truth.

MAN, I have a LOT of things I hate, like squeals, hisses, feedback, and just certain frequencies. Some of THEM people say they can't hear. And some bug me at like practically the lowest volume of the radio or whatever.

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28 Dec 2010, 4:54 pm

Extremely sensitive to any sort of noise, especially sniffling, coughing, throat clearing, my dog licking the couch, eating sounds, pencil tapping... etc. I have to wear earplugs at school during tests or while we're doing assignments, and I almost always listen to my iPod or other music while at home.

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28 Dec 2010, 5:05 pm

I run fans in my bedroom all the time to drown out all the little noises. They can drive me to distraction. In addition to the misophonia, I have the hyperacusis as well. Noise and I are enemies.

Also, the latest noise: The worgen snuffling sound in World of Warcraft. That makes me want to break something. Maybe they fixed it, I haven't played since launch week.

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28 Dec 2010, 6:52 pm

Joe90 wrote:

I'm confused with the touch sensory, because I'm always hearing NTs complain about itchy clothes.

I can give an example of a difference: sometimes I'll feel a sharp burning pain like something's bitten me. I'll look down to find the cause, and find that the pain was caused by a thread from my clothing brushing against my skin.
I've never heard of normal people experiencing touch sensitivity to that degree.

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Cicely
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28 Dec 2010, 9:44 pm

I'm sensitive to pretty much everything...that is, I'm always aware of the sounds around me and I can't block anything out. Most sounds don't really bother me, though, unless I'm trying to concentrate on something. The non-loud sounds that do irritate me are metal on metal, paper rubbing against paper, someone rubbing their hands together, and the humming sound technology makes, anything too shrill. Also, whenever there are multiple sounds at once, even if they're not loud. Voices are the worst.

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28 Dec 2010, 11:53 pm

people sniffing really gets on my nerves, but what i hate the most, is the sound of two dishes clanging together. like when someone is washing up. makes me wince everytime. really gets into my eardrums.

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29 Dec 2010, 12:09 am

one-A-N wrote:

From the point of view of an audiologist, sound sensitivity can be either "hyperacusis" (sensitivity to loud or high-pitched sounds) or "misophonia" (sensitivity to particular - often soft - mouth and nose sounds, such as chewing, slurping, and all the sounds made by chewing-gum in the mouth). Some people call misophonia "selective sound sensitivity syndrome" (or "4S" for short). People with misophonia can also react to repetitive sights, such as a moving jaw (chewing motions) or a jiggling leg.

People with misophonia often have OCD or ADHD, rather less often ASD. People with ASD mostly seem to have "hyperacusis", not misophonia. My observations of several discussions on WP seem to back this up. However, a number of people here do have misophonia/4S - like me, for instance.

From the standpoint of occupational therapy, these types of sound sensitivity are probably both regarded as sub-types of sensory integration disorder, or sensory processing disorder. It is common for people with misophonia, for example, to report having other types of sensory sensitivity - such as touch or light sensitivity.

One difference I have experienced between misophonia and hyperacusis is that the reaction to chewing and slurping sounds is typically a sudden "spike" of anger, rage - the kind where you want to smash something. Hyperacusis, on the other hand, seems more like being overwhelmed or oppressed.

I belong to a rapidly growing group of more than 1300 people on Yahoo who have misophonia, or "4S" as they prefer to call it. It is probably a lot more common than most people realise, as most people with misophonia/4S try to hide it, and often think they are the only person in the world with the problem. Once I started talking to friends about it, I discovered that a friend I had known for decades also had it - and she hadn't known about my sound sensitivity either.

Thanks. I knew there was a distinction. I don't react to bothersome sounds with irritability or annoyance, let alone anger or rage, unless I'm very tired or already frustrated or stressed--in a state were I'm already irritable due to something else. Sudden emotional reaction to sounds, without precursory emotional state, is something I associate with OCD, and I have very little in the way of OCD traits.

My dx is AS, and I've about as AS as they come. Rather bothersome sounds drain me and even feel like they assault me. I can even feel physical pain with some sounds, like very high pitch sounds (like a cymbal or the whine of a computer), extremely loud sounds (like a firetruck or a loud dog) or very low pitch sounds (like a deep male voice or a bass guitar). The worse is the low pitch sounds--sometimes those make my eardrum pound painfully. My sensitivity to sounds can trigger a migraine,a nd likewise a migraine makes my sensitivity to sound worse. And I need earplugs to sleep, or the random sounds stress me and i can't sleep well.

Looking at the wiki page for hyperacusis, it does sound like this is what I have. I'm also a musician and do have some hearing damage that likely contributes to this, but I know I have always had problems with this type of sensitivity to sound, even when i was very young

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29 Dec 2010, 11:58 am

Miser-phonia topic

Whispering, breathing in my ear, horking up ( :eew: ), rattling doors, bathroom fans. Loud sounds are scary, though not annoying like muffled sounds heard through the floor.

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29 Dec 2010, 1:52 pm

I have both hyperacusis (diagnosed) and misophonia (not diagnosed).

The misophonia involves a whole range of mouth noises, as well as things like touching the mouth, having a finger near the mouth, etc. I easily reach level 10 (to the point I'm shocked it's as severe as it gets), these days with violence towards myself, but when I was younger I would actually, for instance, grab hold of a person's finger if they put it near their mouth, and then violently throw their arm towards the ground as hard as I could. And these days the best I can do is to sit there visibly squirming and twitching and stuff, and using a whole lot of effort to suppress violence. (Which turns out to be... level 9, WTF? I never knew I was that severe.)

What I really hated was when someone was eating and I couldn't disguise my reaction to it and she started crying because a family member also had misophonia and "all she wanted to do was eat a meal with her family". Honestly, I don't see the point of wishing you could do something that is clearly torturous to a family member and isn't actually a necessary thing to do with someone. Eating with people is only one of many possible activities and it's not like missing that one thing means missing out on connecting with them. And it irked me because it was like... here was her son and I both in serious mental pain because of these noises, but she was acting like she was the one experiencing the problem here just because we might not want to be around her when she's making these noises.

Oddly enough I find that if I'm in a large noisy restaurant when eating, it makes me less prone to misophonia related to food noises. Even though the overall noise creates overload, it's far better than the intense rage caused by misophonia.

The sorts of noises/sights that bother me related to misophonia include but aren't limited to:

* Any and all chewing noises, especially smacking lips and squelchy noises.
* Certain pronunciations of the letter "k".
* Looking at mouths, especially moving ones
* Looking at people touching their mouths or putting their fingers on their chin or near their mouth
* Gum snapping and related noises
* Certain "mouthy" ways of moving and speaking
* People talking through their food
* People talking through their food in a particular way that seems really common at least in my culture, hard to describe
* People making that weird upside-down fork gesture they make when they're making noises through their food and about to talk through their food
* Various words that are associated with eating, especially in TV commercials, like "scrumptious"

Just talking about it makes me shudder. I know supposedly we're supposed to be okay when we're eating, and it's true somewhat for me, but sometimes if I accidentally smack my lips or something I just out and out hit myself on the head before I even understand what's happening.

And I know what that website means about mimicking the noise. Sometimes I even do it to myself when I'm alone, just repeat the noise over and over in an angry way. Around people I get the urge to do it but I try really hard to stop because they take it as cruel so it may as well be cruel even if not intended that way.

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29 Dec 2010, 2:27 pm

Wanna see me become a jiggling mass of Jello? Just make styrofoam squeak. I'd rather chew on a ball of aluminum foil than hear someone remove molded styrofoam packing material from a box. Styrofoam coolers are even worse. I'm slightly annoyed by other sounds, but I can tolerate them short term. But that damned styrofoam sound will disable me in a split second.

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01 Jan 2011, 12:59 am

I believe that I have hyperacusis because loud and sudden sounds bother me. They startle me and for me, being startled physically hurts me.
Sounds I don't like"

Dog barking
People going, "Wooo"
Yelling
Screaming
People banging something on a counter or tabletop
Whistling
Loud Singing
Shrill sounds
Kids

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01 Jan 2011, 1:46 am

People scratching certain clothing makes me flinch. Sometimes I have to leave. Chewing is an obvious one. I've had to remove clocks out of my room. People breathing. Breathing while they chew. Chewing and talking at the same time. My sister's laugh is particularly cringe worthy. It's like if someone laughed with cake in their mouth, in a really deep voice. Think Jabba the Hut.

Who_Am_I wrote:

Joe90 wrote:

I'm confused with the touch sensory, because I'm always hearing NTs complain about itchy clothes.

I get that too.
After I do the dishes my neck will feel like a wasp bit it. My neck never gets close enough to the water too.
I even get a stinging itchy feeling from hair in my eyes.

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01 Jan 2011, 1:54 am

markko wrote:

I flinched reading this. Squeaking styrofoam causes me actual pain.

There's this guy I know, in my WoW guild. When he talks he sounds like he's talking through a mouthful of food, even though he's not eating. His words sound very wet and when he speaks up I want to throw my headphones on the ground. I like him well enough, but it's always a relief when we're not in ventrilo together.

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01 Jan 2011, 2:18 am

I don't like the sounds of football games on tv along with the sounds of the crowds. It somehow feels cold to me. That's not the best word, I don't know what it is, it bothers me enough to not want to be around it if I can. It can make me feel a little bit nervous or cold or something. I don't even know what that's about.

The sound of a vacuum can make me angry especially if it happens without warning. At home I'll be given a warning so I can put earplugs in. I think I've heard that babies like the sound which I think is weird, if true.

Shrill noises can make me angry as well. A few weeks ago I was at a store and this lady was speaking in a shrill voice over the intercom and wouldn't stop, and then there was kids making noises nearby, and also people were everywhere.

I was once near someone who was cleaning the fabric on chairs with a plastic bristle scrubber and it made my skin crawl. If I was doing that I would have put earplugs in.

Sometimes when I put earplugs in I keep them on just because the muted sound feels sort of relieving in a small way. I don't think I have extreme sensitivity to sounds but there's things which aggravate and irritate me.

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