i dont know how to deal with my sound sensivity

sorry for the wall of text,
I'm out of options and honestly i dont know what to do or who to seek.
i dont even know if this is a mental problem or a genetic one.
i will try to explain my situation the best i can...

i have this sound sensivity where i can't deal
with unexpected sounds they all make me anxious and panicking.. even as normal as they would sound for normal people. even a microwave popping popcorn would startle me and i would get out of kitchen to avoid that.

on stormy days i keep checking the weather radar over and over again with extreme anxiety and panic. and the same goes for new year's eve where there are fireworks, firecrackers loud car exhausts...
last year, i spent new year eve crying and panicking over firecrackers + fireworks near my place
Some dogs barks i can't also stand..

I use ear muffs and ear plugs on those occasions but its never enough, the fear is always there along with the anxiety.

I dont even know how to explain why i fear this, i just can't tolerate the sounds i used to tolerate traffic, especially motorbikes, nowadays i can't..
I've been trying to understand what would be the cause of this but i can't find an answer. i already did an hearing exam, brain exam and nothing unusual was found.

I also used to take meds for my social anxiety, escitalopram and lexapro but i stopped taking them because i got slightly better and to get rid of the side effects which made me sleepy all day.

last time i went to my psychiatrist and explained her this, she prescribed me benzodiazepine and didn't help at all.. and i only have an appointment with her again on the next year...

I dont know how am i supposed to live like this, sometimes i wish was deaf

what should i do?

I feel your pain. There IS such a thing as sound sensitivity, having to do with being born with a hypersensitive nervous system.

I'm the same way. There are certain sounds that are unbearable to me, such as this neighbor's truck. It's SO loud and it startles me when he starts it. I actually dropped the tv remote once.

Jackhammers, screaming kids, a certain dog's bark in this building, garbage trucks, UPS/FedEX trucks which are noisy, etc. I could make a long list but won't. Some sounds are emotionally triggering, bringing up some bad memory even from decades ago.

It seems it gets worse as I get older yet I'm sure I was always like this. Like you I wear earplugs, necessary at bedtime. And sometimes during the day. I use sound machines too but they aren't enough. And making them loud enough to try to muffle other sounds is a competing sound. So more noise.

I don't know what to do either. Sometimes I tell myself the noise WILL end at one point. The problem is I don't know when. But it does stop, sooner or later. People don't even hear what I hear, and they say stuff like "Why can't you just ignore it?" My mood can also make certain sounds bother me more than usual.

Sometimes I wish I was deaf too. My building has very thin walls and it's like an echo chamber. I also have good hearing, which is a curse living here.

Hi @kazurengan, and welcome!

I'm sorry you're having this issue. I was more sensitive to sounds when I was younger. But it was the background noise that bothered me, such as the refrigerator compressor, or the furnace and circulators.

But I never liked sudden loud noises either. And even though the background noises don't bother me, sudden noises do. Also, I've never been able to listen to a conversation when other conversations are nearby, such as at a party. Instead, I'd hear every conversation.

Also, I recall that my autistic daughter got freaked out by buzzing noises. She would avoid a particular water fountain that buzzed when its chiller went on, for example. I know she went through sessions of Auditory Integration Training (AIT). Prior to starting her sessions, she was given a thorough hearing exam that showed she had extremely sensitive hearing at certain frequencies. I can't recall if she improved as a result. But I do know that the issue went away eventually.

This might be more in the purvey of a neurologist rather than psychiatrist. (In general, I tend to seek the medical solution first. And I think the mental health professional is good for some of the things the medical community hasn't figured out yet.)