Too many sounds!

If say, you have the TV on and someone is talking to you at the same time, do you feel overwhelmed trying to process it all? My mom attributes it to her ADHD Inattentive type and i'm starting to get the same way.. i have ADHD Combined type, but i dunno if its an asperger's thing for me... Just now i was watching the news, my dad was talking, and my boyfriend was on the phone talking all at the same time and i was about ready to explode!!!

My son has Asperger's and occasionally has issues with too many sounds at once. I have BPD, and the problem is not constant, but when I'm upset, sounds and especially multiple sounds really bother me and if I'm already on edge can get me upset.

This is a classic ADD symptom. Our poor executive function is responsible. We hear Everything and the net result is we hear Nothing. With un-medicated ADD we can only process a couple of channels of information at a time and quickly get overloaded with more sound sources bombarding us. Our brains spin fast trying to hear everything, but it is not easy for ADDer's. I noticed great improvement in this area after starting my Adderall treatment. I could sit in a noisy restaurant and actually hear and understand the person talking to me

The other classic ADD character is the "Telephone Tyrant"
(Guilty as charged here)
In the old days I had a hard enough time talking to someone on the phone and staying with the conversation. When someone walked up to me while I was on the phone and said something to me because they knew who I was talking to and wanted to relay something I'd get So P.ssed Off...

Why???

Because when two people were talking to me at the same time the net result of what I heard was "Nothing", now I'm trying to pretend that I'm still following the phone conversation, which I fail at badly, then they think I'm not interested, "What a jerk I am" and so on...

Yep... I totally know what you are saying

You just hit the nail on top of my head

My son has ADD/ADHD and is like you when it comes to sounds. I have bipolar disorder and I'm like Maranara. I would suggest in the future mute your tv, ask your bf to hold and then see what ur dad wants.

I tell my bf to hold and he keeps talking... i dunno if he doesnt hear me?

You're not alone there, buddy. When there are to many sounds, I just lose it completely. I deal with it by just getting myself away from the noise or doing whatever I can to stop it (maybe telling someone to stop talking for a bit?) and that helps.
Does anyone know why this kind of sound sensitivity is so common among people with ADD/HD? I'm just curious, I think it's interesting.

I have BiPolar and experience sensory overload myself. I hate the noise of TV commercials and mute them. Drives my husband nuts if he has the remote.

My son has ADHD and talks nonstop, this puts me on edge a lot, especially when the TV is on, I'm on the internet, or on the phone.

I don't like talking on my cell phone either unless I know I won't be interrupted.

It is pretty common among add/adhd people due to the fact that are brains are trying to hear everything that is going. Are brains put feelers everywhere trying to absorb everything that is going on around, so much that our brain cannot keep up with the info that is being brought in. It cannot filter and dump what is unimportant. So it just gets so overwhelmed with the amount coming and thus we usually all end up having to deal with it in our own way, such as losing it as some do, or removing themselves from the sounds like you or just shutting down to give the brain a break and come back from the break when the brain has had enough time to get back to a state where it is not overwhelmed.

I hate it too. I hate to have a TV on and a radio because I can't tune out either one. The worst has to be that awful sound in Walmart of two hundred different people talking at the same time. It is an annoying dull roar that you catch bits and pieces of conversations. Then a little kid starts screaming, and I want to die or run.
What is funny, is if someone is talking directly to me and I'm not paying attention to them, I either don't hear it at all, or it kind of sounds like that blah blah blah the teacher makes on snoopy cartoons. It annoys the crap out of my hubby when I am always like, "huh?" "What?" But he has to forgive me lol. He annoys the crap out of me when I say something and he interrupts me....all the time. And then I forget what I was thinking.

Totally relate, this statement made me think a little, I am not a fan of going to baseball games or places where you have to sit in a stadium with chairs in a row. I always thought I didn't like it because the seats were so close to the person next, I did not want them intruding in on my personal bubble, but I now think it may be the white noise of all the people around me. I cannot handle all the noise and conversations, the sounds form the stadium speaker system etc. but at the same when I am working on something, say homework. I have to have something going such as music to break the silence, so I can concentrate, absolute silence drives me up the wall. tough median to find lol.

I hope you're medicated - it makes you closer to normal. Even normals have different types/styles of auditory processing (would you believe - cenuries back all these differences helped in the survival) - speeds.

Of yes, old people really need to listen to only 1 thing at a time too. And lets face it, you really shouldn't be be talking and watching tv at the same time. There is a reason they have you do one thing at a time in school. Just because our environment makes some things possible does not mean all those things are physically or mentally good for us.

i don't talk and watch tv at the same time, people call me while i'm watching tv and i forget to turn it off. yes, i'm on concerta 54mg

Today I'm having sensory overload at work. Things beeping, multiple conversations around me, phones ringing. Very nerve wracking.

Totally know the feeling liveforfish. I had one of those days in class the other day. except it was all being rooted in trying to talk to one person and getting my questions answered. Short I ended taking a 10 min break to clear my head. Then came back lol.