Thanks guys for responding

Forums like these are invaluable to people to seek out others who have been, are going through similar issues.

The old saying of "To those who understand no explanation is necessary, to those who don't no explanation will do" certainly rings true.

Thank you for your suggestion BLUEDOVE, I have looked into the book, this one though seems to focus more on the childhood and parenting style aspect as source, and I am not so sure this applies to me. This has all come about in the last 10 years or so, before then I was the complete opposite and very extroverted and was rarely bothered by things, always calm and collected, I just gradually started changing, there was no "event" cause. Thought, as everyone tends to cliché, that I was just getting older but this was not the issue.

I have taken a week off from work, bought loads of different types of noise cancelling headphones, so I have a pair for all different situations, and simply concentrated on equipping myself with as many tools as I can to ignore/block sights and sounds around me. It certainly helps, it is no cure but gets you past the day to day and stops your blood pressure from rising so much. There is a lot of mental "leave it, ignore it, it doesn't matter" that goes along with that. Waiting to start psychologist treatment as soon as all the consultations are done although I am not quite sure how beneficial this will be but will go at it with conviction.

Its tough living in a world where all the time you hear things you don't want to and see you don't want to, at least not in the way you would like.