[Terabithia]

I was just wondering if others here experienced an intolerance for noise sometimes, and wondered if any one had any insight into why and what brings it on? It seems like it comes out of nowhere. The vacuum cleaner would be going, and I have to go in another room with the door closed, but I can still hear it even though it's more in the background. I have to have absolute silence. A whisper would probably be too much.

[insilence]

Before I used my personal method for quieting voices I experienced the amplification effect from highway noise as well as appliances.. I have a method but its hard to explain.

[Tsunamisurfer]

Originally Posted by Terabithia

... I can still hear it even though it's more in the background. I have to have absolute silence. A whisper would probably be too much.

I suffered from extreme noise sensitivity for years. My family would walk on egg shells around me because I couldn't handle a laugh from someone near by, and the ting of cutlery on a plate was intensely startling. Being in a group setting where sounds came from more than one source was hugely distressing. The filtering of sounds was a core problem. Poor stimulus filtering is a well studied phenomenon with schizophrenia and related disorders. Check out sensory gating studies for more on the subject.

I was put on a much stronger dose of risperidone recently, and my ability to cope with sounds, and filter out irrelevant stimuli have improved a lot.

Let's hope it stays that way.

[Agentfyre]

It's a real thing, and it doesn't have to have schizophrenia to accompany it. My wife and her dad are both really sensitive to soft sounds. It's a real condition, but I forget the name of it... maybe it's as simple as soft sound sensitivity?

But I'm unsure of what methods they have for treating it. With my wife, I just try not to eat near her, and sometimes we need to communicate some kind of middle ground. Sometimes she'll wear headphones and listen to music, sometimes I'll leave the room... whatever we gotta do. But yea, you're not a freak or anything.

[worthit]

I have noise sensitivity as well. Someone chewing next to me really disturbs me. Or clicking a pen just irritates me. I don't like the noise of the mower outside with the gardeners, or any loud noises or even quiet ones disturb me.

[SmileHere]

I've had noise sensitivity too. Officially the diagnosis 'hyperacusis' (you can google it to see if it might be you as well), there are several different subtypes. One is misophonia. I forgot the rest. Different people may have different labels.
There can also be different causes for it. For me, what triggered it could be a combo of loud band practice I was at, contraception pills (I later found out they could have 'sensory' effects and could decrease amount of vitamins/minerals), nutritional deficiencies etc.

I've had it for a few years before being diagnosed with psyhosis/schizophrenia.
I linked it to poor myelin sheaths and nutritional deficiencies since it improved when I was taking magnesium/zinc tablets, though they had side effects, but I was just so happy that things improved. I then stopped eating supplements and started eating meat again (I was 75% vegetarian before) and things improved too.
Interestingly, schizophrenia has been linked to poor myelin sheaths too.

I still get annoyed by too loud noises (eg lawnmower or chainsaw) and have earmuffs and earplugs for that, in general it's best to use those as little as possible (the ears are more sensitive after the use of earplugs especially) and use your fingers when needed or leave to another room. I can sometimes tolerate the noises better (nutrition, weather, level of sleep etc) sometimes even the vacuum cleaner is okay, especially if I use it so that I control the noise, and not someone else.

It's been better since I've been on antipsychotics too (Zyprexa first, now Abilify). I've been taking fish oil too, this might be helping as well.

[worthit]

I have noise sensitivity when I'm hypo manic or anxious. Could be quiet sounds, like food in someone's mouth, or the crack of a potato chip, besides the loud ones.

[SillyKitty]

To make a long story shot (lol) yes. I want absolute earplugs in with head under a pillow silence.

[unplugmealready]

I have had this before. Recently seems to be worse. I drive to work and back in complete silence. If my wife shouts at our son for being bad it goes straight through me. I also feel like it's me that is being told off sometimes and go all quiet. At my parents house they have old fashioned clocks and the tones of them whenever they chime have always felt like they were putting me down and making me feel stupid. I don't know why but they just make me feel bad. Is that wierd? I also don't go to fireworks displays ever because of this.

[Lemon Curd]

Among other things, the heavy slam of a car door, hurts my head.
My eyes are very sensitive as well.
I hate it.

[mindbrain]

Before my medication change (risperdone to Zeprexa) sound was very overwhelming for me. It made me feel almost claustrophobic. But with my new meds its subsiding (thankfully)

[icinggurl]

YES I seriously struggle with noise issues, esp when they are from a human - breathing, sniffing, chewing, etc. There is something called misophonia that seems to be a new diagnosis and you might check that out. I've lost jobs over my intolerance to noise and when I hear them I feel absolute rage for no reason at all. My therapist says mine could be related to a traumatic even from childhood too.

[Terabithia]

I looked up misophonia - pretty interesting. For me it's the sound of birds and a vacuum cleaner, but then I'm also randomly noise sensitive and I'll tell my husband at those moments "that I'm experiencing noise sensitivity." Every sound is awful at these moments and the quieter it gets, the more sound I hear, because I can't get absolute silence. There is definitely an element of rage. I wonder if this goes along the same lines - I have always been really paranoid about others hearing whispers...for instance, if my sister whispers to me about someone else, I think that it's too loud and that others can hear, and if I whisper to others they always want me to whisper louder, but I can't because I'm too paranoid. Whispers aren't very kind though, anyway, so it's probably best to just ignore them and not do any whispering myself, either!

[icinggurl]

Originally Posted by Terabithia

I looked up misophonia - pretty interesting. For me it's the sound of birds and a vacuum cleaner, but then I'm also randomly noise sensitive and I'll tell my husband at those moments "that I'm experiencing noise sensitivity." Every sound is awful at these moments and the quieter it gets, the more sound I hear, because I can't get absolute silence. There is definitely an element of rage. I wonder if this goes along the same lines - I have always been really paranoid about others hearing whispers...for instance, if my sister whispers to me about someone else, I think that it's too loud and that others can hear, and if I whisper to others they always want me to whisper louder, but I can't because I'm too paranoid. Whispers aren't very kind though, anyway, so it's probably best to just ignore them and not do any whispering myself, either!

I also had another thought occur reading your reply - I have no idea what your diagnosis' are besides schizoaffective, but I have OCD and sometimes I wonder if that aggravates the sound stuff. For example, if I hear one of those trigger sounds, I start to panic anticipating the next one and then I can't distract myself from listening and it becomes this weird obsessive thought cycle that makes it all worse. My shrink calls it my thought tornado. I've always leaned way more towards obsessive thinking rather than compulsions, even though I'd had those in the past.

Also, I'm a musician and I wonder if that kind of makes my ears/brain super sensitive to sounds. I wish I knew a doctor who knew about misophonia. It's kind of a new thing. There is a website where you can download mp3's of hypnosis techniques. I downloaded the misophonia one but I haven't listened to it yet. My therapist recommended the site so I trusted it more than if I found it on my own. Not sure if that's something that might freak you out - some people hate hypnosis, which is fine of course.

Sometimes I wish I were deaf until I realize the music I'd miss/perform. I'm no Beethoven!

[Terabithia]

Thought tornado is an excellent description. I think I do suffer from some OCD too. It makes complete sense for you as a musician, being much more tuned in to sound, to be more sensitive than others to various noises, to hear a greater range of noise, and for sounds to be clearer and sharper. I believe in suggestive hypnosis, or is there no such thing? I think it's something more powerful than just the power of suggestion.

[RRex]

Silence is golden. I despise noise of any kind.

I listen to the TV very low and I hate going out in public because of the decibels.

I do, however, find the noise of a very small fan comforting.

I have notice lately that sounds have put me into a anger fit .
My son who eats nachos the crunching sound drives me nuts .
When my husband talks he tends to talk loud and then I yell at him and tell him to stop talking loud your hurting my ears .
Beeping sound , drive me nuts , There is this family that lives across from me and they have 3 AtV's and it drives me in sane the loud motor .