what do you think about whistling?

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b9, I know exactly what you mean except I was totally ignorant to magpies as of a minute ago. Multiple times when someone was whistling near me in a store, I became so incensed, I would whistle one bad note very obnoxiously. Fortunately, there were no fights. I have a friend who whistles all the time and he is nice enough to not do it around me and I am nice enough to try to ignore it when he forgets. I'll have to look up ODD. I seem to have auditory issues associated with AS, which I definitely have.(diagnosed by specialist)

To me, this is the crux of the matter. It's probably the reason that the sounds that people make are so much more annoying to me than random sounds, such a bird songs.

I can whistle on key and have a wide range. But I know better than to do so in public when other people are forced to listen. I might whistle in a public area if it's outdoors or a big space, though.

i never could figure out how to stick my finger in my mouth and make that loud whistling sound, no matter how long my sister tried to show me. i guess i need somebody to somehow stick their finger in my mouth to show me the correct actual finger/tongue juxtapositioning.

I hate it. It's painful. it's annoying. and it does my head in. Most whistlers can't hold a tune to save their lives. Whistlers should be shot.

i have been able to whistle since i was two

I don't know if I'm a high functioning autistic or not. It has been an unwelcome speculation by friends and family over the years, but I tend to sidestep such conversations. I have always had trouble functioning as a "normal" human being. In fact, to me, "normal" seems quite impossible, and I don't know how "they" do it. Yet, though I am unable to live a normal life, hold a normal job, or in any way otherwise exist "normally", I seem to have a singular luck with landing in circumstances that make it possible for me to at least exist, if not easily, with some level of societal comfort.

Anyway, about 7 or 8 years ago I suddenly could not stand the sound of someone's whistling. I cannot recall ever having been bothered by it before. I can still remember the moment it happened. I was at a Denny's in the middle of the night studying (private study, not connected with any formal education) when I suddenly noticed the whistling of the cook in the kitchen. It to my ears was very much like the whistling you described in your post, just random off-key notes bouncing between extreme shrills and lower warbles. At first I was just unable to concentrate, but before long I became annoyed, and not long after that having to listen to some fool chirp away while I attempted to read or write filled my head with thoughts of extreme violence against the culprit. In fact, if I'm faced with something like this, I have to gather my things and leave the public place before my pulse-pounding impulses lead to indictable action.

You have inspired me to make some 4x5 cards with a variation on your words quoted above, which I will hand out to offending parties as the situation requires. It will be an experiment, to see if it will make a difference. I can always adjust the content of the cards later to further refine the experiment.

Incidentally, I have had trouble with abrupt sounds at the opposite end of the spectrum as far back as 20 years ago now. It started with a distant neighbor who liked to blast his stereo system such that I could hear and feel it vibrating through my home a full block away. He did this often, and I developed a similar response/reaction to sounds of this sort. Even when a "boom car" goes booming by I can't help but to imagine I have a grenade launcher or a stinger rocket I can launch at the creatures. In fact, it is in large part because of my sensitivity to low frequency sounds that I am unable to live a "normal" life, but I also have several other behavioral anomalies that make social interaction more than difficult for me.

I have uploaded a copy of the card. Feel free to print and use it. This PDF should print straight to a 2x6 card:

http://mochinet.com/random/Why%20it%20i ... 0_4x6_.pdf

My 4 yo HFA son has learned to whistle. It seems odd because he does have auditory sensitivity and does nto like load or chaotic noises but it seems to serve an oral fixation for him. It grates on my nerves at times but considering he chews on his clothes less since he has started whistling, I have not said anything to him about it. He has even started to be able to carry a tune to some degree.

I'd be curious to see what happens if you played classical music in the house all the time as a background music. He might pick up some of the melodies and get to be somewhat pleasant sounding.

I love whistling, but detest when other people do.
I tend to be a hypocrite with noises.

This is an excellent idea. He mimics voices and sounds pretty well so he'd probably pick up the classical music quickly.

I whistle in private. Usually when hiking or in a particular mood. Usually, "if I only had a brain".

But I don't like other people to make any noises so that covers whistling.

It doesn't bother me. By the way, I don't know how to whistle.

given a choice between listening to somebody inexpertly warble [singing or whistling] or having to listen to some fatassed rightwing blowhard bloviating on the box, i'd choose the whistler anytime. i love to whistle, and i do it with some facility, due to decades of practice, but i would not whistle in front of other people unless they asked me to [some folk have asked me to whistle for them, in the past].

I whistle all the time, to the point that it drives other people crazy... when I'm not whistling I'm humming, or purring(like a cat) or making a host of other animal noises, I don't speak much, but I make noise pretty much none stop.