Living in an apartment - noise sensitivity

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I've recently moved to a new apartment because the noise made by my neighbours bothered me a huge deal. I had several meltdowns over it, I was pretty much going crazy because I couldn't enjoy some peace and quiet after work. The new apartment doesn't have as thin walls as the previous, so there's some improvement, but I'm still bothered by sounds.

The best thing would be moving to a house in the countryside, but that won't be an option for another 5-10 years, so I'm looking for small things that could help me cope with the situation. I've recently ordered custom made ear plugs for sleeping, hope that will help. I was thinking some of you here might have similar problems, so I was wondering of anyone has some good practices to recommend?

I've got the same problem. I live on the downstairs floor and under the most annoying person. Me and my boyfriend reckon she has got no carpets or anything because we can literally hear every step she takes, like every single floorboard is creaky. And she is ALWAYS on her feet. My boyfriend says she's an insomniac, so she's up all night as well, and she seems so restless. We hear the vacuum cleaner going every couple of hours.
The trouble is we can't even complain, because we will be the selfish petty ones, not her. I mean, you can't stop someone from doing things in their own home. It's just a shame that we have to live underneath an annoying person that doesn't hardly ever sit or do any quiet activities.
We can't really move to an upstairs apartment because my boyfriend prefers to be downstairs because of his arthritis in his legs.
But when people are moving about above me it seems to hurt my ears, even if the sound isn't loud at all. And when someone's vacuuming, the repetitive rumbling sound of the vacuum moving across the floor above is agonising! I do hate obsessive cleaners!!

Noisy neighbours are hell on earth...
If I want some quiet time, I put on my pair of Peltor X5A earmuffs. I highly recommend those (affordable, and the highest sound reduction made by 3M). It is a delight to finally have some rest! Unfortunately you can't get more than 36 dB reduction with hearing protection, because if you would have theoretical 60dB earmuffs, the biological structures of your head only dampen the sound about 36dB..., so the sound would get to the eardrums anyway.

It is not the sound pressure level, but the amount of sounds, and the repetitiveness that bothers me. Frustration levels often rise despite my use of hearing protection. Haven't found any coping mechanisms yet.
(If you are bothered by smell, you can breath through your mouth, if you are bothered by textures, don't touch them, but I can't turn my ears off! )
I hope you find the strength to keep coping with your noisy neighbours!

In the construction phase adding sound deadening is not very expensive. All you need to do is pack the interior walls, floors and ceilings with fiberglass insulation. But normally apartments are built to minimal standards. If the expense is not a problem and you gain the apartment owners permission, you could have insulation blown into the walls or ceiling.

Other options are earplugs, noise canceling headsets, white noise generators.

My last place was a studio apartment, with basically everything in one room. Running the exhaust fan over the stove on the low setting worked pretty well to drown out the reasonable level of noise from my neighbors. It was quiet enough set on low that it wasn't overwhelming. Without it I could hear pretty much everything going on in the five apartments around mine.
Both of the built in exhaust fans in my new place are too loud to use like that, so I'm planning to buy something else instead. I have to get a dehumidifier here, so I'm hoping it will generate just enough noise to cover up my neighbors. Otherwise I'm planning on a very small oscillating fan (or something).
I think that old egg cartons work as budget soundproofing material, and was planning at my last place to affix a lot of them to sheets of cardboard that I could tack to the walls. If you have money to spend, you might buy actual studio acoustic foam panels. I think they could be attached to cardboard and then attached to walls and ceilings to block out a lot of sound without permanently modifying the apartment.