Do ear plugs help? I know I can't stand the feel of ear plugs in my ears.....I know that sounds are louder to me than to others but not to the extreme that you experience.

I remember as a kid going to school, I lived in a very small house with my parents & my bedroom was down a little hall from the den where they had the TV. They had the TV on while I was studying & the talking on the TV would cover up what I was studying & getting it into my brain.....I could sit there & read the same paragraph over & over & all I heard was what the TV was saying.....they even turned the sound down & closed the 2 doors & the sound was just like it was still normal volume. No one could understand why & it made my mother mad because they wanted to watch their TV......& it definitely frustrated me. I can hear sounds that other people can't even hear. I have been able to filter out some things better now than before, but even now when I'm reading, I can't have the radio on or I hear what the radio is saying & it blocks out what I'm trying to read.

Guess my brain doesn't have a good filter on it......don't know quite the why's on how it all works.....but I do understand at a lesser level what you are struggling with.