Struggling To Have A Conversation While The TV's On

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I often struggle to have a conversation with someone while the TV or Radio is on as I unable to concentrate while there is background noise , it's almost as if my mind tries to do both - listen to the person and the TV at the same time.

It also happens if a conversation involves more than 2 people speaking at the same time. A group of 4 people having two separate conversations is torturous.

Is this considered an autistic trait?

Could it be related to any other disorder?

Yes, most definitely an autistic issue. As an autistic person's sensory input gain is always turned up to 11, multiple data streams are extremely tricky to navigate simultaneously.

I find, as you do, that when several people are speaking at once, or a radio or television is playing while someone is talking, I have a particularly hard time understanding what's being said. It's almost as though I were hard of hearing, but deafness is not the problem. It's the computer chip in my brain attempting to translate more data than it's slowpoke processor is capable of analyzing all at once. I often have to ask people to repeat themselves, or I'll hear them say something which at first makes no sense at all, then a second or two later, realize that I heard a word or two wrong, and they said "fever," not "beaver."

2 people trying to talk to be about two different things nominally shuts my brain down, and yes if tv is on i cant have a talk to people. It drives me mad.

YES this drives me nuts!! It is one of the things that will throw me into a rage. The additional input confuses everything in my brain and I can't focus. Just writing about it gets me tense. Something similar happens when I am trying to speak with someone and there are other noises going on around the room. My brain tries to make sense of each individual input source and its' direction while trying to focus on the conversation and I can't focus on anything and then my brain starts shutting down.

Could this be related to Bipolar ?



Could this be related to ADD ?

YES, this drives me absolutely NUTS!! Besides, it's incredibly bad manners----like, when I've tried to talk to my youngest sister, on the phone, and she's watching TV..... IMO, choose ONE----if you don't want to turn the TV off (as she has a family, and it wouldn't be right for her to turn it off, while they're watching it), then go into another room. When someone calls ME, I turn the TV off, to give the caller my undivided attention, because I feel that's only proper (good manners).

Other sounds, while talking, don't bother me, as much----like, if I'm in a club, I can just tune-out the music, and listen to a person (unless it's extremely loud, and then I can't handle that, very well).

Also, there's a disorder that some people have (including myself), that makes it so one can't understand someone else, if they speak too loudly, or too quickly----it's called Central Auditory Processing Disorder (CAPD). When it happens, I feel my brain just "faints" (I don't physically faint - it's like others described, "shuts-down").

I just looked at CAPD and a lot of it fits , I wonder if I have that and other disorders that together look like ASD ?

Hate background noise. Hate crowds. Hate people. Hate being interrupted when I'm focused on something. Hate loud noise of any kind if I'm trying to have a conversation. For a social animal, I'm pretty f*****g antisocial.

I'm NT.

I struggle with this too.

Yes, this is common in autistics.

Yes, this is found in other conditions as well, some of which are common co-morbids with autism. It could be due to a hearing loss in the ears, an auditory processing disorder in the brain, an attention deficit or executive functioning disorder...

I find it hard too, not so much because of the background noise, but because the TV is a distraction to most people and I get afraid of a scene or whatever suddenly appearing on the TV what the person I'm talking to wants to listen to and being shushed mid-sentence. Sometimes people stare at the TV whilst having a conversation, even when they aren't following anything on the TV, so I find it difficult to know if they are trying to watch it or not.

This was one of the first things for me that clicked when I started learning about aspergers and realised I could have it.

I really doubt it. Maybe the dyslexia.

Thanks Knofskia , my hearing appears very good , I even hear things that others my age don't ( specially high frequency noises like electronics ). An attention deficit doesn't quite fit me but an executive functioning disorder seems viable.

Who shushes you, your not a child ffs? If someone shushed me I would ignore it the first time , the second time I would have to give them a piece of mind ( if I was feeling confident or very cross )

Thanks Dave

Ooh! that was your 666th post ( the number of the beast )

What was the 2nd thing that clicked for you?