What noises just tip you over the edge?

[ofwarren]

A question for other autistic people

Which noises are guaranteed to send you into sensory hell?

I'm lay in bed at the moment and can hear the incessant hum of a lawnmower and my heart is just racing and I'm clenching my teeth so hard. It's one of the worst noises for me.

I also can't handle military planes and power tools.

I always feel bad thinking like this but yes, one of my sons stims really gets to me too. It's a soothing noise he does when he is stressed. Like a continuous vocal fry sound. Sets my heart racing when he does it.

i'm ok with the lawn mower here. ( flats and we are the only people with a lawn for quite a distance. )

sudden loud noises or other random noises. (which coverrs a lot of things really including the children)

noise of cutlery on plates.

I was ok with two angle grinders when they came to do work as two of them were more constant than one going on and off.

Kids outside bouncing a football. Over and over. The continual dull thud.
Noisy eaters.
Screaming children. I don't mean babies crying. I mean children screaming for no apparent reason (l work in a supermarket and sometimes it's ear splitting), and not a word from the parents, who are usually glued to their phones.
People who 'throw' their shopping onto the conveyor. It just comes across to me as aggressive. But l was in a DV relationship and things like that trigger me.

The sound of people eating. Especially DH. I wear Flare Calmer earplugs at the dinner table now.

I have two particular customers who come to my checkout who make soft 'cooing' noises. Like a wood pigeon. Both older ladies, so l wonder if there's a particular reason for it.
But it really puts my teeth on edge, and l have no idea why. It's like a quiet low bleep that you can't quite place.

Kids screaming, crying and banging

So envious of those of you who can wear earplugs — I can't tolerate earplugs or in-ear headphones. Have tried a lot of types but they range from very uncomfortable to really painful, and my ears never learn to ignore the sensation. It's especially annoying because headphones of all kinds are one of my favourite obsessions, but I have to stick to on- or over-ear ones.

It's a bit of a shitty combo of sensory sensitivities

When men do that quiet singing and then suddenly get louder at a certain part. It really distresses me. Just this morning I was in a card shop and man came in singing a song I'd never heard of and then just started yelling when he hit the chorus. I just had to leave.

High-pitched noises or noises that increase in pitch (children screaming, motorbikes accelerating, jet planes, scraping noises etc) bother me far more than low-pitched ones.

I have got round this by using good sound-cancelling headphones (the kind that muffle sound, rather than block it entirely, so that you can still cross roads etc) - I own a pair of the Loop Experience ones, but I think others on this board have had good experiences with Flare.

The fan in my cooker. Drives me demented when it starts its low level squealing. I used to live next to a level crossing which constantly clanged but that didn't bother me at all. But this feckin cooker ...

I don't have autism but I am incredibly noise sensitive. I think I agreed with everything people listed above. Especially the really loud engines and sirens going past - I have to stick my fingers in my ears which is embarrassing.
Many of the noises I can't bear are generated by other humans. Even their breathing sometimes.
My FIL has this habit of doing that teeth sucking sound when he takes a mouth full of food and I swear it might tip me over the edge one day.

Yes to loud cars and motorbikes. Also don't like pallettes crashing if I've ever passed or woken up near an unloading spot. I don't like people singing near me because it's them who get to decide the volume not me. I hate fun fair music like on the waltzers and whatnot with bleeps going off from the claw machines. Chewing gum sounds are unbearable and if someone slurps or gulps their cup of tea. I hate the sound of the engine if I have to get something from a food/ice cream van so I avoid. Also hate the sound of most violin music, it has to be spectacular for me to enjoy it otherwise he all sounds like 'Emily aged 5' to me. And finally my neighbour who must drink alot of something in glass bottles as every day at lunchtime he empties dozens of glass bottles in his bin and it makes the most horrific noise.

Vocal fry or women with loud screechy voices .Many American women have this and it is prevalent in many of their news stations and it drives me absolutely insane .
Loud mobile phone conversations in public .I often have to get up and leave .

People eating

More than one person talking at a time

Someone or multiple people talking whilst other noises are happening like washing machine running and two people talking at you.

Basically very distressing and makes me feel murderous rage. I really struggle with most noise 😩😪

I can't say I have autism, but these things all make me shudder and feel a bit sick
Chalk in anything
Stones banging on stones
Scraping knives on chopping boards
My son clapping
My dogs claws on paving stones scraping when she stretches
Fan in the oven
Boiler pump screech
My mum eating yogurt slurpping
Tea slurping
My kids eating with their mouth open

I could go on and on!!!

Whistling as well drives me over the edge... had to leave a supermarket the other day as a man was just walking around whistling

I find the sound of a lawn mower to be very relaxing. I don't know why. Maybe it's knowing that there will soon be a freshly mowed grass smell. Lawnmowers remind me of summer. But the noises that do me in are motorbikes (I'm also a migraine sufferer so they affect me on two fronts), babies crying, people chewing/making slurping noises, and the sound of someone typing loudly at a computer keyboard.

Anyone who uses a mobile phone on public transport.

Singing. I’m fine with recorded music or professional performances, because they’re in tune and the timing is right and the words are right. But someone casually singing gives me the rage, because they’re usually out of tune and out of time, and my brain knows it’s just not quite right. If they sing the wrong words it drives me insane, and if they repeat the same couple of lines over and over I will lose my temper.

I think it’s the unpredictability that upsets me, like I know what’s supposed to come next and then it doesn’t come so I get frustrated. It’s also partly because my brain picks up the rhythm and starts stimming, then the singer breaks the rhythm which breaks my stimming, and I find that infuriating.

I had a baby recently and ever since, I have been having incredibly visceral reactions to certain noises. Never thought I was neurodiverse even though close family members are. The first two are just annoying but the 3rd is truly horrible.

1. my 7 year old bouncing, kicking or dribbling his football, especially if it goes into a wall. I feel so mad and want to kick it over a wall or stab it.

2. instead of blowing his nose, my husband snorts his snot into the back of his head. Its infuriatingly disgusting and I want to just walk out on our marriage every time he does it!

3. The worst. My 7 year old kisses the baby on the hand or face. I can hear the soft squelch and it makes me feel completely violated. I feel like I'm silently screaming inside, as if something totally inappropriate or incestuous is happening to me. I often feel like bursting into tears and I have to go very,very deep into myself to manage the experience.

Oh the nose snorting 😩
My dear partner unfortunately snorts, sneezes and sniffs abundantly and often has whistling bogeys which he flatly refuses to deal with 😑

I don't think I have ASD, but almost positive I have ADHD. Just waiting for a diagnosis. The sounds that make me rage are:

1. my son screeching and squealing, rapping and making repetitive noises. I'm almost certain he's either ASD or ADHD but my husband refuses to let me get him assessed.

2. my son bouncing / dribbling the ball in the house. He won't stop no matter how many times I as. So there have been several times I've just taken it and thrown it out the back door.

3. bathroom fans.

4. U.K. rap / grime music

Wait, what, @adhdforme ? Your husband won't "let" you get medical help/assessment for your son? Seriously? Your his mother! You just DO it! You don't need 'permission' from 'the man' to get medical help for your son! You are letting your son down by not getting him help. This is 2022. Since when did you roll over for a man, and ignore the needs of your child?

Children noise, doesn't have to be loud, just hearing their voices is too much for me.

Agree with all the pp who have said lots of people talking at once. This has only been as I've got older though.

The number one thing that makes me feel like I'm loosing my mind and becoming stabby is my little dog licking herself.

While ds’s voice was breaking he had a stim that sounded like he was trying to find the right sound or sensation. Similar to his current stim, but squeakier. Oh, that one was tough to tolerate!

I can cope with hand-flapping, spinning, turning himself upside down, all the physical stims - not a problem. It’s the vocal stims that make me really really edgy. (And the leg-jiggling, but hating that is hardly neurodiverse!)