Extreme hatred of noise

[Hartley99]

Does anyone else hate noise? I mean really hate it? I’m beginning to worry that I have some kind of disorder. I believe there is something known as misophobia, which is a dislike of noise, and of certain noises in particular. For me, it’s the sound of souped up cars. Near me are loads of little idiots who fly round in cars with noisy engines and exhausts that sound like fireworks going off. I can’t begin to describe the rage I feel when they drive by me.

More generally, I jump out of my skin when a child screams or a car bibs or something like that. I can’t explain it. Maybe it’s part of getting older. Or maybe it’s linked to anxiety and depression.

You could be hypersensitive to noise.

Have a read around hyperacusis.

It's misophonia...

I dislike loud things, can't cope with loud voices or background talk radio. Some restaurants / bars really affect me. It can manifest itself with irritation or feeling suddenly panicky or stressed. Generally I'm able to cope with it though, i wouldn't describe it as extreme as you feel OP. I would say i have a sensitivity to auditory processing, I hadn't heard of any names for it. I'm sure there are techniques you could use to help you regulate yourself if you look it up.

My son has autism related sensory and auditory processing disorder and really struggles with noise. I bought him some Loop defenders as they are unobtrusive and he's self conscious as a young teen. They have made a huge difference to his ability to cope. His running out of noisy classrooms js much reduced. Might be worth a try?

I'm sensitive to noise and mess. Probably should have thought through having children more than I did 😂😆

I get you, it's very difficult for me, especially as I work in very noisy environments and it drains me! Just sitting in peace and quiet is bliss 😊

I think you are completely normal, and more sane than most.

I moved from a rural area to my ex-partner's house in a 'village' in the Midlands and couldn't believe how noisy it was. Endless cars and lorries. Planes in & out of Coventry airport. It was hard to find anywhere that you couldn't hear a motorway or dual carriageway. And it carried on all night. There was never silence. It was horrendous. No wonder people are stressed.

I didn't last. 😀

I'm lying in bed, back in my nice rural area. with the window open and I can't hear anything except the occasional deer barking. Bliss !!

Next door neighbour's tv every single night at full volume (she says she's deaf), DD and I always sleep with doubled up wax earplugs in and waking every day to hear that she is still watching tv at full volume. It's making me murderous. It's been about 4 weeks daily now. Her bedroom doesn't even back mine, she's another room away.
I have complained to her but she says that she's deaf and 92. There have been other very weird problems with her (caught her putting a urine soaked pillow into my empty recycle bin), and she likes to pick cat shit up with her bare hands and throw it over the fence. I have rabbits and guinea pigs and she'll throw rotting bags of veg over too.

I'm sensitive to noise & autistic. I can hear a flea fart a mile away, things like building noise, revving engines or people arguing drive me mad. I have to sleep in noise cancelling ear plugs or I don't sleep.

I’m very sensitive to noise, hate loud vehicle noises, loud voices, doors slamming etc. I try to keep my discomfort to myself as much as possible but I find it very difficult.

I'm the same.
I live in an apartment and recently the communal air circulation system has been loud and 'echoey.' I can hear a constant drone in the apartment. Its driving my absolutely mad. The neighbours don't seem to care. I shoved some foam padding in the vents a few nights back as I couldn't take it any more. It has helped. Its probably a fire hazard but I don't care...

I’m noise sensitive and work with the loudest person ever, she’s a delight in every other way.

its been a torturous year, and I’m trying really hard not to let it show. I have an hour silence when I get home

I'm the same. There's builders knocking a wall down near the back of my garden and I want to scream at them. Scaffolders are the worst trade by far. Loud, banging, rough people who have to shout at one another constantly. I didn't used to be like this - but I'm home more as I age, so maybe I just notice these things more.

You may be particularly sensitive to it, but I also think most people hate most of the sounds you've listed. I do!

I'm like that, and it's much worse when I have anxiety/depression. When I'm feeling good it might be irritating but doesn't bother me nearly as much.

Learn to love earplugs. There are all types so don't give up immediately. Some deaden noise, some reduce it.

I do have noise cancelling earphones, but they're not very good. I probably need some more expensive ones.

There are so many cars round here with modified engines. They do something to the exhausts so they make a loud backfiring sound. I can hear them at all hours, and they often wake me up. The sound goes right through the house and right through my earplugs.

So many people dislike noise that I'm surprised we don't take it more seriously. There really ought to be stricter laws, especially in a small, crowded country like this, where the houses are all jammed on top of one another. I have known two people driven to suicide attempts by noisy neighbours. Both had MH problems, and the noise tipped them over the edge. One had a young guy move into the flat upstairs. He played loud music at three in the morning, let his dog bark at all hours, and after she complained did everything he could to torment her. The other lived in a sort of cul de sac and was driven mad by boy racer idiots who used the road nearby as a meeting place. He'd constantly be woken by the screeching and backfiring of their cars. The police, needless to say, did nothing.

i have sensory issues including sound and touch. never been diagnosed with anything and not really interested in a diagnosis. i know i'm slightly odd i don't need a doctor to tell me. I can't drive with windows open because i can't concentrate, can't stand loud noises or repetitive noises, have the tv volume very low with subtitles.
I also don't like physical contact unless it's my husband or children and even then i get claustrophobic. don't like showers or getting wet. i can't touch wet dish rags or micro fiber lost goes on...

I prefer quiet but I wouldn't go so far as to say I hate noise.

I think you do get to a stage where a person is so sensitive to the rest of the world, the problem is theirs, not the rest of the world.

Getting angry about it isn't going to stop it as the world is noisy. Even cavepeople had annoying pigeons around.

The only way you can really stop it is to screen it out rather than expect other people not to make it, and find a way of calming yourself, because getting enraged by it will not do you any good.

I can't bear conflicting sounds at the same time, IYSWM. If I'm watching TV and my DH starts watching something on YT on his iPad, I either have to turn off the TV or ask him to use headphones. Similarly if I'm parking in a tight space and I've had the car radio on and the parking sensors start beeping, I have to turn the radio off immediately. It's not just a bit irritating, it causes a notable physical stress response, like a kind of rising panic in my chest.

You and me both!!

I can’t cope if there is conflicting noise… if there is background music and someone is trying to talk to me, I really struggle, I have to remove the music or the talker.. can’t cope with both!
There was major building in the house next door, in 2012… I used to actually weep with the noise. It seemed to ‘get in my head’ couldn’t hear tv or radio or phone calls, it was total hell. The house shook all day, I wondered at times if the roof would fall in, it was that bad.

I know exactly how you feel OP. The rage that those un silenced exhausts induce. I startle sharply as well, at loud unexpected sounds, or if someone surprises me with their presence. I pretty much shriek when that happens. It's embarrassing as people think I am putting it on.

My mum was exactly the same.

Me too! I can’t bear it when someone gives me a lift with loud talk radio on and then they talk at the same time. I find it really painful.

Im like you i jump at the smallest things and hate noise.
Barking dogs screaming kids shouting parents banging doors.
I have fallen in love with silence.
Peace and quiet i dont own a tv or a radio either.
Hate drama too.
I dont want to know any outside goings on either unless i read about it.

Yup. I'm autistic.