Sensitivity to sounds (other than loud noises)

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Sirens, screeching tires, doors being slammed, motor cycles, and car horns grate on me. But what also gets to me is other sounds like keyboard typing, gum snapping, gum chewing, noises people make when they are chewing food,, water running, food frying, polite audience applause, car tires driving over gravel, paper being wadded up, and perhaps a few other things. Anyone have sensitivity to other sounds other than loud noises??

My cat licking herself or eating, the low level hum of our water filter, the subtle buzz florescent lights make (to name a few)... Hearing is my most sensitive sense and I often wear earplugs because of it.

sometimes I hear a bump sound in the middle of the night, so I hide under the bed

-The clearly audible humming and buzzing of virtually all electronic equipment that everybody else claims they cannot hear.
-Stereo music played on a stereo sound system with only one speaker attached.
-Manic kids TV shows.
-Wind through a keyhole
-The distinctive squeak of a squeegee across wet glass.
-Ringing phones
-Mail coming through the letterbox and landing on the floor
-My doorbell - it makes an unpleasant rasping noise.
-Vacuum Cleaners.
-Dishwashers.
-Refrigerators.

And many more.

This has to be one of my biggest problems in life. It's not just the loud noises that bother me, it's all the little irritating, unnecessary noises that drive me insane. Stereos, TVs, headphone leakage, the neighbours moving about, the neighbour's water heater, people who talk loudly/incessantly, the guy I sit next to at work who clicks his pen whenever he's on the phone, chair squeaks. I feel like I'm drowning in noise pollution and it's all so **UNNECESSARY**.

It's got to the point where two fairly extreme thoughts have come to mind as reactions to distress; I'm not suggesting I would seriously pursue either, but I mention them just to demonstrate the magnitude of this issue.

The first is to have my hearing surgically disabled and never hear anything ever again. I need my hearing and love music too much to do this, but if I were ever to go deaf involuntarily, it would not be entirely unwelcome.

The second is suicide and has been seriously considered in conjunction with other issues, most of which relate to Aspergers, but definitely noise is one of them. Nobody I know understands just how serious an issue noise can be for me.

These days, I don't go anywhere without earplugs and headphones/iPod. They're my survival kit when I go out of the house. When I'm at home, if there's noise about and I can't cope, I use a combination of earplugs, headphones and earmuffs. My absolute last resort if things get bad is to use earplugs with music/movie piping through earpieces sitting inside the cups of the best industrial earmuffs I can find. Where I live at the moment, I've not had to resort to that, but I have had to use earplugs and headphones together when the neighbours kids start thumping up and down their hall or they play their stereo/TV loudly.

So, yeah - big noise, little noise - it's all equally aggravating for me...and it's a big deal!

i have the same thing. think someone on here said it might be mysphonia? when i had a hearing test they said it was soft sound sensitivity. i can hear someone sucking a sweet even if the TV is on loud and i find it so irritating.

has any of you ever reached level 10?

http://www.misophonia-uk.org/new-the-mi ... scale.html

some ways they try to treat it with:

http://www.misophonia-uk.org/dealing-wi ... honia.html

http://www.soundsensitive.org/index.php ... &Itemid=53

the described onset age 7-10 definitely applies to me

some of my triggers are:

- chewing
- pen-clicking
- loud, obnoxious tv programs
- snoring
- incessant building site noises
- funnily enough when i was young some mozart, bach and schoenberg, webern, etc. used to drive me up the wall!! !

strangely enough i find a schoolyard at playtime upsetting when i am in the middle of it, but when the same noise drifts through an open window from far away i find it extraordinarily soothing

Whispering, singing, hissing, scraping and styrofoamy sounds are horribly irritating - I think I'd prefer to be in the midst of a loud construction site than listen to those.

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.

I can't stand any sudden, quick noises such as a balloon popping. It stops me from going to parties. I also don't like the sounds people make when they eat, so I prefer to eat alone.

Sound is an interesting thing for me. I could be spooked by a creak in the house, yet a thunderstorm will put me to sleep. I can't stand when people are talking behind me, yet I need some noise in a quiet room to keep from feeling paranoid.

I hate the sound of scrubbing, from another room. You know, when somebody is scrubbing a dirty patch on a hard floor with a firm brush or something, that really quick back-and-forth sound - ohh, it's so annoying!

Also the sound of the kettle annoys me because it roars so loud that I hear it all the way from my room, and I get confused whether it's hissing in my ears or if it's the kettle.

Toddler's voices annoy me, even if they're not crying. (Unless they have quite a soft sort of voice, but when they have a sharp ear-piercing shriek sort of voice it drives me mad).

People walking past my room is annoying because it's so distracting.

When my cat meows loud near my room or in another room - ohh, she's really annoying!

People walking in the room above me is annoying too.

People coughing loud is annoying too, also when they clear their throat loudly, or yawn too loudly (there is no need to roar when you yawn!)