Getting used to sounds

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Alright. So I am playing TF2 (Multiplayer, first person shooting game) and I feeling fine until people start talking on their microphones.

Then I start having an anxiety attack. (dizzy, heart palpitations.) It is not the shooting or noise, because I played Half Life 2 with no problems. It is just the voices. I need to get used to the voices because it is how your team mates talk to you.

I have this problem with other sounds. I think it is because they are unusual. How would you suggest someone gets used to noises they can't anticipate. I have this same problem when people honk at me or yell out their windows (even if it is to another set of people and not me)

Again, the gun noises don't bother me, they are actually very consistent and it is almost a constant barrage of noise, rather uniform... It is the people on their microphones.

i dont know what anxiety is for but i can tell you that if i was on the plains in africa and saw a hungry lion after me i wouldnt need anxiety to know i better start running. i mean really, i think mostley as time goes on and on people wont even be able to get in a car without causing an serious accident because somebody honked there horn scarring the other driver

My son's sensory issues and mine to a lesser degree have to do with I guess an overactive startle reflex. My cell phone ring tone is a low key jazzy bit turned down low and I still jump when it goes off.

Yeah, I startle a lot. Most embarrasingly, my toilet flushes very loudly, and it takes like, thirty seconds to complete, and I flushed it and then got a pop and when I was opening it I hear the toilet like... gargle really loud and I almost threw my pop. I was like "Soda should not make that noise!! !! !! !! !" Then I made the distinction between the two and was fine. It made me blush though, even though I was alone.

When I was younger, my sensory problems were mostly related to my startle reflex. It didn't have to be loud; it just had to be a relatively loud noise compared to ambient sound. I couldn't be in the same room as the dishwasher if it were running because it would make sudden noises. I lived in fear of the basement for years because the furnace coming on made a sudden whooshing sound. Unfamiliar toilets also got me, because I never knew how loud they were going to be when I flushed them.

How are you defining "younger?" because I am 19 and I feel kind of stupid for having that problem... Especially the toilet one (I still always flush, I just cover my ears and sometimes close my eyes. [I don't know how eye closing helps though])

I would say that I had my sensory issues (sound and touch) up until adolescence, then they basically faded or went away entirely. I understand that they don't fade for everyone, though, so I wouldn't be embarrassed in the least about covering your ears. I still cover mine when a fire engine goes by, not because of the siren, but because of the startlingly loud horn they use. It's still very uncomfortable and intrusive, though these days I recover much faster from those experiences.

Speaking of toilets... When I was little I inadvertently caused a toilet to overflow, and this was extremely jarring to me. I wouldn't flush for years after that for fear of it happening again. Finally, when my father explained to me how to prevent it from happening (don't flush a second time if it's clogged), I was fine. Why didn't he explain this to me sooner? It would have saved a lot of frustration.

Yeah, mine aren't going away. It seems that, if I keep at it, I can become accustom to sounds and other things. (I am focusing on sounds here, but there are so many other odd things that bother me and I feel so silly so often.)

I used to snap my head around fast whenever I heard a loud bang or crash. I've kind of desensitized over the last 10 years or so, though. Now I'm usually just like, "Okay, who screwed up?" It depends on where it is, though. If it's in a relatively relaxed, quiet environment where I'm not at all expecting it, I'll still do it.

My startle reflex worsened so much over the years that I have to take medication to take the edge off of it.