Does anyone else experience competing sounds? Is it just me?

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Okay, this is a weird one. What I mean by competing sounds is this. Here is an example. There is a building across the parking lot from my house, I don't know what it is but I think they have some kind of generator or big engine going on in there and it is on for almost the whole day and night almost every day. This noise is really hard for me to deal with. It's not really loud, in fact my husband could not hear it until I pointed it out to him one night and he had to concentrate to hear it. But even though it is not very loud, it is particularly penetrating for me. I hear it very well and the noise sends vibrations throughout my whole body. I think I am the only one who might feel it since no one else around complains about it. So I try to drown it out.

I have a rainstorm on one of my apps on my Ipod which I love and I play that through speakers on my nightable. But the noise from the machine still cuts through. So I turn up my rainstorm and somehow the noise from the machine gets louder. Then I turn up my rainstorm as loud as it can go and I seem to hear the machine even louder. Then I turn on the AC fan in the bedroom window to try to make more "white" noise to drown out the machine but the machine seems to cut through that as well.

So at that point it starts to get ridiculous so I start turning stuff down. And the machine does not get louder, in fact it gets relatively softer but I still hear it predominantly and it still feels debilitating. Sometimes it is so debilitating that I can't even function. Then I try to play music through my MP3 player with earbuds but the machine still cuts through. So I give up trying to fight it and just try to function the best I can. I try not to focus on it but it is hard not to. Sometimes I have to spend the entire day and night listening to my MP3 player just to cut the machine down a bit. I can go days without sleep because of it.

Does anyone else experience this phenomenon of completing sounds where when you try to drown out the one sound it just seems to get louder and louder to compete with whatever you are trying to drown it out with?

Thank you Red. It is comforting to know that I am not the only one who feels this. It can be so hard sometimes. Sometimes I literally want to cry. Sometimes I end up leaving the house and going to the lake or running errands. At least that helps for awhile.

Yeah machinery / engine sounds like that drive me up the wall. The only thing that sort of helps some is putting on earphones and listening to music and or watching a movie or TV. But I think I know what you mean, those types of sounds that carry sonic vibrations that feel like they're attacking your central nervous system.

P.S. I just changed from a Tufted Titmouse into a Yellow-bellied Woodpecker!