I was talking to a coworker the other day that wears hearing aids. She had just had her hearing aids adjusted and said that sounds were too amplified and were hurting her so she was going to get them adjusted. I told her that my hearing is pretty much always like that. I have very sensitive hearing and little sounds can seem extremely loud.
Things like the ticking of a watch, the sound of electronics humming, and the padding of someone’s steps can be debilitating at times. I can’t fall asleep with a watch on or next to the bed because the ticking is too loud. I have been known to take batteries out of clocks because I can’t tolerate their ticking. And that high pitched sound you sometimes hear from the sound waves of electronics is all too well known to me.
On the other hand, sometimes I can’t hear well at all. My ears produce too much wax sometimes and it becomes hard to hear certain sounds. When this happens I have a hard time hearing people over the phone or understanding what people say in person.
Sometimes I can even have super sensitive hearing and not be able to hear other things at the same time.
I really don’t know what triggers any of these times. They just kind of happen.
The hardest part of all this is trying to filter the sounds that come in. When things are too loud, I try to focus on something to try to filter out the excess sounds. When I can’t understand someone because I can’t hear them very well, I try to focus on what they’re saying and filter out the background noises.
For the most part, I do pretty well with dealing with sounds. Sometimes it is harder than others, but I do my best to remain calm and ignore the sounds that are overstimulating. It just gets harder when other things add to the stress of sounds.
autismthoughts 
The sound of a ticking clock by the bed! Agggh! I looked everywhere all over Tokyo and found one silent analog clock that glowed in the dark. The glow function has gone now but it still is silent. Bliss.
What about the hum of a hotel fridge? I just unplug them if it really annoys me.
Cicadas in small numbers at a certain pitch are okay with me but when it gets over a certain number it becomes deafening and makes me irritable.
I am the one who turns off the advertising radios in shops when no one else is looking! How can one think in a shop that has noise blasting out from numerous sources. 🙂
LikeLike
I had to look up what a cicada is. 🙂 But yeah, those can be annoying when they get too loud.
I’ve never had problems with hotel fridges because I just never plug them in and I haven’t been to a nice enough hotel that they already have it plugged in 🙂
LikeLike
So my wife had one of these and they are amazing for ear wax if that is a problem. When I use it I am grossed out by all the stuff that was in my ear, but I couldn’t get with a q-tip or anything else.
LikeLike
Yeah, q-tips generally push stuff farther back into your ears. I haven’t tried these before, but it might be worth a try
LikeLike
I have sensitive hearing and difficulty understanding what people say as well. I find loud noises stressful and sometimes painful, and I’m often bothered by sounds other people don’t notice, but when there’s background noise I sometimes can’t hear what people say and have to ask them to repeat themselves. I think the problem is that my brain doesn’t filter sound very well, so it can’t ignore background noise and it can’t distinguish between background noise and speech.
I’ve taken batteries out of loud clocks as well.
LikeLike
Yeah, I think there’s a problem with filtering for me too. It’s just hard to hear what someone is saying when other sounds overpower them.
LikeLike