i don't know if noise sensitivity is officially an OCD thing. my therapist said that she knew some OCD people who were really sensitive to noise, but the pdoc didn't mention it. it is definitely a thing for me because of the checking. at my worst i couldn't do anything unless i was sure it is quiet even in other parts of the house, which, when you live on the ground floor in a busy neighborhood, is a problem. like I'd sit down to work and then have to get up and go check if i could still hear the neighbors' tv in the other room, even if i couldn't hear it in the room where i was working, and it was just an infinite loop.

also in our old apartment, the bedroom was right next to the front steps and people used to sit out there and talk all the time. not at night so much, but like, if I knew they were out there when I was going out, i had to keep coming home to check if they were still there. or wait till they left, go out then come home to make sure they didn't come back.

god i get weird and teary even remembering this. it sounds so petty and stupid but it was so awful.

part of the reason they said it was ocd was because earplugs didn't help. i used them all the time but had to keep taking them out to check if there was noise somewhere. i spent lots of money on custom ones and on noise machines. i got an ear infection. etc.

i have fewer checking issues now, partly from treatment but partly because we left that place. that was hard too because one of the things i get weird about is money, whether we'll have enough, no matter how much we have, and i thought it was so horribly extravagant to move twice in four months. a lot of people would say it was but it was cheaper than hospitalization, and that is where it was going.

i also really hate football games and bass. honestly. getting out of that neighborhood was really what had to happen. i can't even drive past that place now.

since you asked. oh wait you didn't.