Hearing/Mental Illness?

[snakeskinboots]

I wasn't sure where to post this topic but since there was a thread about Tinnitus in this forum not long ago, and this has to do with hearing I thought I'd post here. If it's the wrong place, I apologize.

I am curious if anyone else on this board or in this profession suffers or has suffered from anything like this:

For as long as I can remember I have not been able to block out or ignore sounds/noise.

In a quiet room, I will listen as hard as I can for even the faintest disruption of silence and I can't rest until I can't find it.

As a little kid from around age 5, I slept with big wax earplugs in and even then could hear some noise, so I'd wrap my head in-between my pillow and clamp it closed tight with my arm.

Dining at a crowded restaurant, I have a hard time carrying on conversations with the people at my table because my ears are following all of the other sounds, voices, etc. around the room.

A little twist, I have a teacher that says "um" over and over during lectures and it irritates me so bad that I can barely sit still. Little things like sniffing, gum smacking, crickets...it's lot of things, but it's always something audible.
Maybe I'm just an asshole. Maybe it's mental illness/asshole.

When listening to music or mixing music alone this is fantastic. I can listen very intently for hours. In everyday life, it can be miserable. I'm wondering if there's a pill out there. Maybe something that I could take only "when I need it".

Thanks for your help.

[Knights Who Say Neve]

Don't get our opinions; go see a specialist.

[lancebug]

Perhaps you have aspergers syndrome. Are you really good at anything?

[JGriffin]

Don't get our opinions; go see a specialist.

[Alex Netick]

I have the same problem -- I think it's psychological. I'm bothered by other people's noise. It's not noise per se, though, because I'm not bothered by my own noise. Sigmund Freud mentioned a similar problem where people are bothered by the smells of other's and not their own -- I forget his conclusion, but I think he was pointing out that it's not smell/noise per se that bothers us, but that added element of their being someone else's smells/noise (I think it was in Civilization and it's Discontents, I can't remember). Did you have any head injuries/concussions? Also, do your own noises bother you? If you find a solution, let me know.

I wasn't sure where to post this topic but since there was a thread about Tinnitus in this forum not long ago, and this has to do with hearing I thought I'd post here. If it's the wrong place, I apologize.

I am curious if anyone else on this board or in this profession suffers or has suffered from anything like this:

For as long as I can remember I have not been able to block out or ignore sounds/noise.

In a quiet room, I will listen as hard as I can for even the faintest disruption of silence and I can't rest until I can't find it.

As a little kid from around age 5, I slept with big wax earplugs in and even then could hear some noise, so I'd wrap my head in-between my pillow and clamp it closed tight with my arm.

Dining at a crowded restaurant, I have a hard time carrying on conversations with the people at my table because my ears are following all of the other sounds, voices, etc. around the room.

A little twist, I have a teacher that says "um" over and over during lectures and it irritates me so bad that I can barely sit still. Little things like sniffing, gum smacking, crickets...it's lot of things, but it's always something audible.
Maybe I'm just an asshole. Maybe it's mental illness/asshole.

When listening to music or mixing music alone this is fantastic. I can listen very intently for hours. In everyday life, it can be miserable. I'm wondering if there's a pill out there. Maybe something that I could take only "when I need it".

Thanks for your help.

[;ivlunsdystf]

I used to be outrageously sensitive to intrusive noises in my environment, to the point where loud talkers and airport TVs and stuff actually made my heart rate go up and so forth. Over the past couple years I have noticed that I don't mind environmental noises anymore. Maybe I reread John Cage's "Silence" enough times, finally. Maybe it was the arrival of an often-crying baby in my household. Maybe it was some hormonal change when I turned 30. Maybe I'm going deaf. Who knows?

Sarah Susanka ("Not So Big House") wrote somewhere about how she was trying to telephone a zen center in Minneapolis years ago and she noted that the monks took a REALLY long time to pick up the phone. Somebody eventually filled her in: The monks had collectively decided that they wanted the phone ringing a lot because it gave them something to struggle with in their meditating practices, or something like that. I guess maybe they were training themselves not to mind noises like the damn phone?

[lyman]

maybe your doctor can hook you up with a good neuropsychologist. you really ought to ask some professionals.

[snakeskinboots]

Perhaps you have aspergers syndrome. Are you really good at anything?

not genius good, but when reading up on it, some of the symptoms sound familiar. interest in parts/components... since around the same age that I noticed this (5 or 6) I would completely disassemble any new toy, bike, etc. and put it back together. Maybe this is normal for a kid. I don't know. My brother didn't do it.

Did you have any head injuries/concussions? Also, do your own noises bother you?

Alex, I've had two concussions and no, my own noises don't bother me at all.

I used to be outrageously sensitive to intrusive noises in my environment, to the point where loud talkers and airport TVs and stuff actually made my heart rate go up and so forth

I know that feeling...

Thanks for all of your input.

[Smitty]

i was listening to NPR last night, a piece about a woman who tastes chocolate for a living. she is able to make a good living doing that because she happens to have an extremely sensitive nose that allows her to detect aroma notes and flavors that other people would miss. whereas most of us merely chew up food, she EXPERIENCES it.

she mentioned that it's also sometimes a problem, because if she's on an airplane and someone 6 seats away was sweating, the smell would overpower her and she'd have to move seats.

it sounds to me like you've got what could easily be considered a gift that happens to have a downside.

that said, definitely see a specialist if it's bugging you that much.

[JGriffin]

she mentioned that it's also sometimes a problem, because if she's on an airplane and someone 6 seats away was sweating, the smell would overpower her and she'd have to move seats.

A friend of mine is so sensitive to scents that if someone walks by her on the sidewalk smoking a cigar or wearing too much cologne/perfume (and most men who wear cologne wear too damn much of it) she gets a headache that lasts for three or four days.

[Alex Netick]

Since your own noises don't bother you, I'd say your interpretation of the noise is the root of the problem. Our brains evolved to hear foreign sounds as threats, and for good reason. The only way to deal with it would be to adjust your interpretation, or to isolate yourself from sounds completely, which isn't possible. As to adjusting your interpretation, I'm not a psychologist, but I'll research it. Hypnosis? Medication? I don't know.

Perhaps you have aspergers syndrome. Are you really good at anything?

not genius good, but when reading up on it, some of the symptoms sound familiar. interest in parts/components... since around the same age that I noticed this (5 or 6) I would completely disassemble any new toy, bike, etc. and put it back together. Maybe this is normal for a kid. I don't know. My brother didn't do it.

Did you have any head injuries/concussions? Also, do your own noises bother you?

Alex, I've had two concussions and no, my own noises don't bother me at all.

I used to be outrageously sensitive to intrusive noises in my environment, to the point where loud talkers and airport TVs and stuff actually made my heart rate go up and so forth

I know that feeling...

Thanks for all of your input.

[apropos of nothing]

Since your own noises don't bother you, I'd say your interpretation of the noise is the root of the problem. Our brains evolved to hear foreign sounds as threats, and for good reason. The only way to deal with it would be to adjust your interpretation, or to isolate yourself from sounds completely, which isn't possible. As to adjusting your interpretation, I'm not a psychologist, but I'll research it. Hypnosis? Medication? I don't know.

I vote meditation before medication. I can tell when my mentally ill friends are off their meditation sooner than I can tell they'e off their medication.

[versuviusx]

it sounds like you have hyperacusis. that is exactly what it sounds like. i have it. i do the same thing you do. if i hear some smack or ruffle paper over and over again i go fucking crazy. i want to bitch slap them.
i have to leave. it really brings the worst out in me.
the only thing you can do is not react on your impulses. just leave the environment.
i know exactly how you feel. its so irritating it puts you into rage. no one has a cure for tinnitus. they are still working on it. but since millions of people in the world have it i expect one soon within the next 5-10 years. and lots of troops are coming home with it with all the bombs and guns going off in close proximity.

[cgarges]

no one has a cure for tinnitus. they are still working on it. but since millions of people in the world have it i expect one soon within the next 5-10 years.

Yeah, since it worked that way with cancer and all.

Chris Garges
Charlotte, NC

[GodDamn]

A cognitive therapist could help you 'retrain' your thought processes. Some how, you have fallen into this pattern of mental behaviour (not an illness), so theres no reason why you can't change it, if its causing you problems, in the same way that people can be 'trained', or conditioned, out of phobias, or cycles of destructive behaviour.