Hello Amandolin --- I am new to this site as well and very grateful for it. Your story is so familiar to me. I too get extremely uptight by certain sights. Like the way my mom sometimes uses her fist to rub her eyes,people that  bounce their legs while sitting, and gum chewers-whether I can hear them chew or not.Well anyhow hang in there and God Bless.

Yes!!! Finally someone understands that seeing certain stuff drives us crazy too! I can't stand to watch people eat even if i can't hear them. I hate when i am in class and i can see someone shaking their foot or leg out of the corner of my eye. I also hate when i can smell certain things. I HATTTTTEEEEE gum chewing. If i can't see or hear it but i can smell it- that will drive me crazy too!! Does anyone else have it this bad? It literally runs my life!

I'm so glad to have found this board..

I have been dealing with Sound Sensitivity since I was a child. Now I'm 26 years old and things seem to have worsen. I cannot stand ANY eating, breathing, snoring, nose blowing, tapping, dripping, nail clipping and filing etc. noises. They drive me crazy!!! Sometimes I feel like an idiot, a lunatic, a psycho, abnormal, because of this problem..

At work I can hear everyday the girl who seats next to my cube eat her lunch. She usually eats potato chips or nachos which drive me nuts. She eats with her mouth open and I can hear all the crunching. I get soooo angry that I feel like punching her in the face!! This happens every day for the last 2 years..I often walk away from my desk for 15min until she has finished or I turn on my ipod. Even the keyboard typing from the guy 5 cubes away kills me! Or another guy eating his pop-corn every now and then..This problem affects seriously my conctrentration at work. I try to pretend that I dont hear these noises but I cant do that for more than 10sec.

Also in my personal life, Sound Sensitivity causes problems. My boyfriend smacks his lips when he eats and drinks coke while he still has food in his mouth. So at the same time I hear the crunching and smacking and the swallowing. I have told him to eat with his mouth shut and only drink once he has swallowed the food. But he says he cant do it because the liquid helps him swallow..This causes me to get angry and start yelling at him. He doesnt seem to understand how his eating noises torture me. I do love him a lot but eating together brings a lot of negative emotions.

My poor mother, who wears really bad dentures and has to eat with her mouth open because otherwise she will choke, drives me crazy as well. She lives in an other country so when I go to visit her once a year she always wants to sit and have diner with me, but only the idea of that just makes me anxious!! I force my self to sit with her and eat, and turn on the TV (even though it's rude). She doesnt know about my problem all these years, and I dont want to tell her that I cant stand the way she eats..I dont want to hurt her feelings..

I cant sleep at night if someone is doing laudry in the laundry room. The sound of the washing machine makes me wanna go and yell at that person. I dont have any ticking clocks in my apt.Sometimes I can hear my boyfriend's watch ticking and I have to cover my ears.

I wish I could treat this problem, it would make my life less stressful and aggravating.

Yay!! I just found this website and I am so happy to know that I am not going crazy...although at times I feel that I am. I told my mom about this a few years ago and she said I was being ridiculous and selfish and that I had to eat dinner with her and my dad. I'm 17 but have been dealing with this since I was 12. 

I can't stand being around my dad. He's never hurt me in any way and is such a loving and caring father. The only problem is, I can't stand to be around him. I can't stand the sound of his loud breathing, grunting, swallowing, sniffling, and the sound of his feet rubbing together. I can't sit at the dinner table with my dad because his jaw like pops when he chews AHHH I hate that.  If I have to drive somewhere with my dad, I have to have my earphones or I'll hold my ears the whole way to our destination. I dread having him take me to school in the morning or picking me up so my mom has to drive me to and from school. I also never go to restaurants with my dad. My relationship with him used to be very good. Now, I can only be around my mom. I'm hurting my dad by staying away from him and he always makes comments like "my daughter doesn't love me anymore" and "Why does she ignore me?" I have to spend my life either out with friends or in my basement watching TV. I can't eat dinner with my parents or have normal "family time" with them. This is such a sucky syndrome and I wish there was some way for it to just disappear.

What kind of feelings do you guys get when you hear those annoying noises?  Do you feel actual physical pain or just extreme irritability and anger like you wanna hit someone?

Consider Joining my Yahoo GROUP:  type soundsensitivity

Marsha Johnson, MS, CCC-A, FAAA

Oh my goodness, I can't believe I found this board.  This is so incredible.  I have to say I'm not so bad with eating noises (although I don't like them much) but other noises are like a million fingernails on chalkboards to me.  The worst one is sniffing for me -- any kind of sniffing makes me want to hit the person.  Spring is the worst because it's hay fever season, and people sniff all day long, everywhere you go, and you can't escape it.  I am a graduate student and I can't stand to be in the library or computer lab because no one blows their nose.  I have to have my headphones on all the time so I can totally drown people out.  It can be hard to get studying done that way.  

I also don't like singing (especially women's voices if they are singing without instruments), humming, whistling, and loud slurping.  If a commercial is playing where the jingle is someone whistling I have to change the station. 

My husband kind of pokes fun at me about my little noise problems but not in a malicious way, and he does his best to not make any offensive noises around me. 

What I find really interesting about reading people's responses here is how many of them talk about parents' noises (especially fathers' noises) triggering the hate.  My father has always been a sniffer and, my God, do I hate it when anyone does it, but especially him.  I remember hating it since I was about 10 or 11 years old and I am now in my mid-30's. 

I wish there was a cure for this because it is a miserable way to live.  But I am so happy to know now that I am not alone in this (I have always felt like a freak about it).

I am so excited to have found you all. Its like coming home after a very long journey. I also knew there had to be a reason for this "Sound Intolerance" which i always called it, i knew it had to be a medical condition that just wasnt recognised yet.

My dad had this same condition, when i was very young i remember being the recipient of being around someone who is intolerant of sound. Then, when i reached early puberty, i began to exhibit a similar condition.

Its made it very difficult in my life to sustain close relationships... anything that involved eating, or repetitive annoying sound could drive me crazy... anxious, upset, angry. I found the more tired i am, the worse i am.. my ability to cope with sound lessens..

I usually try to remove myself from offensive sounds, busy myself in the kitchen.. hurry through a task so i do not need to remain within hearing distance for extended periods. I survive with my handy dandy ear plugs which are never far from my side.

I am so glad to have found this site. Thank you! Its so important to realise that we are coping with might not be just an irate emotional response, but there could be a physical condition that we are reacting to somehow. Education, understanding can only help us all deal with it more effectively

Greetings Tapper

I did try a form[?] of hypno-therapy once long ago. I dont know, I guess it all depends on who you go to see, how well they understand this syndrome, what techniques they use that will prove to be more effective or not.

The woman I went to helped me mute those "internal sounds" or that "critical voice" inside my own head. It did nothing to dampen sounds around me, but it may have helped, indirectly, my coping mechanism to those sounds.

• First of all, she made me look at this voice inside my own head that was critical and berating, not just on the world around me... but especially upon my self.
• She made me identify the general area on my head that this voice seeemed to originate which for me was the right temple moving back towards my ear.
• She then had me imagine the most uplifting music i could at the time, to encompass myself in this beautiful sound, to feel peaceful and serene. ["Return to Innocence" by Enigma]
• Finally, she encouraged me to imagine a volume control button over the spot on my head. Whenever I heard my internal criticial voice act up, [which, strangely enough, was highly reminiscent of my father], I would just turn up the volume of my uplifting music to drown out these thoughts.

This therapy did help aspects of my life, but I can't say it solved this problem specifically. I think the main problem was neither one of us had identified this syndrome then as clearly as we are able to here in this forum. That, alone, would probably have helped dramatically. I call it the "Rumplestiltskin" Therapy. If you can Name something, [clearly identify a problem], it ceases to have Power over you and we are better able to deal with the situation.

I have heard somewhere along the lines as well that this syndrome may be the result of a vitamin deficiency, namely Calcium or Magnesium if i remember correctly. I did try this, using a supplement for some time and i cant say that i noticed any improvement.

To cope? Generally, i just try to remove myself from the sound. I know that is not always possible, especially in a work environment. Sometimes I have had to say something to those closest to me. I try to wait until a moment when i am not in the throws of agitation by the sound, so that i can talk calmly about it. For example, i was working along side an avid gum chewer that made that horrible cracking sound everytime she bit down. I had explain to her that i have an acute sensitivity, that I suspect is an actual syndrome (before i found this forum and knew it WAS a syndrome). I told her that I find it very difficult to be around these sorts of sounds for extended periods of time. I think the key is to ensure they know its not "them"... but rather it is our response to the sound, not to make it a personal attack on their eating habits. She was really good about it, although i am sure she thought i was a bit odd, she totally respected it and i have yet to hear her chew gum around me again.

I find that this syndrome is more acute when i am overtired, my resistance to sound deteriorates dramatically. So taking care of yourself, sleeping, resting, relaxing are all probably significant indicators.

And last but not least... Ear Plugs! (My Hero!) I always have a pair with me so that if i am in a situation i cant avoid.. bus, shops, etc. I discreetly put them in... i am sure i look like any of the other folk with their walkmans... only mine dulls out that nasty static noise.

I hope some of this helps... If i think of anything else, I will post more

Alix

Please also consider visiting my site on Yahoo, which is called Soundsensitivity.....

Marsha Johnson

(namer of 4-S.....)

Marsha, thank you.. i just joined there also

Tapper.. something you might try... Do it first thing in the morning when you get to work, feeling refreshed... make sure you had a good nights sleep. Bring your co-worker a coffee or donut even. Just mention to them there is something you need to talk to him/her about. Maybe even print out some of the material here, information about the syndrome... But try to explain a little about it. Emphasise that this is your issue.. a problem you have had to deal with your whole life... but that one of the triggers is the foot tapping. I am sure he or she would be happy to help.

Thats the hardest thing, to try and do this when we are having an episode. So, do it in a safe time before it accumulates. Open the doors of communication. I have been finding it incredible at work, being able to talk about it. I have told them (and my whole family too!) about this discussion board!!

(((((( & big Hugs... You are NOT alone with this any longer.. none of us are)))))

I am so glad to find others like myself. I am 54 years old and have learned to cope with this since I was about 10 years old. I too can not stand to hear people chew,.... gum is the enemy (can't even stand to SEE people chewing), nail clipping is the worse, and tapping makes me crazy. Eating corn on the cob in my house is forbidden.

 Why is it though that it is mostly family and close friends that are bothersome??? I have the hardest time with my 90 year old mother. I love her dearly and I know she won't be around for many more years but I just hate to be near her when she eats. My poor husband of 30 years has managed to put up with me all these years, don't know how he has done it. Sometimes in the morning as he is getting ready for work, I'll be at the sink next to him and he breathes through his mouth while shaving and I want to go mad!

Now here's the kicker, my son who is 23 also has this problem. He has it even worse then me. We sympathize with each other all the time. Does anyone have any thoughts on a heredity connection. I thought maybe it was a learned thing but I don't think so anymore because my older son doesn't have it.

So far the only thing that helps is removing myself from the situation or background noise. There has to be a reason for this. Too many people have the same symptoms. I am not ready to believe it is physiological.

kmeeker,

Welcome to the board.  Would you take a look at a thread I just started called "Question for JenMcK"?  I'd appreciate any feedback you could give me regarding your own experience with the sounds which are a challenge to you.  Hang in there and thank you.

Rob

Hello. I only realized that noise was an abnormal issue for me a few days ago. I guess I never put two and two together. Everything that you guys/girls are saying sounds exactly like what I go through daily as well. A short list of my most "painful" sound aversions...

1. Plastic bags
2. Motorcycles/loud cars/trucks
3. movie theatres, people eating popcorn, opening candy
4. crying babies
5. music that I'm not listening to
6. repetitive tapping
7. someone washing the dishes
8. whistling
9. humming
10. keyboard/mouse clicking
11. ect ect ect

The list could go on for pages but you get the point. I don't think I've had it all my life but I am having trouble pin-pointing when I first starting having this problem.

Sounds provoke an intense anxiety or anger for me which creates terrible problems with my relationships. It seems crazy to me that I had not been able to figure out why I got so angry at seemingly little things and why "people are always loud and rude around me". There are varying degrees of emmotional intensity depending on who/where the sound is comming from. For example, I can make any of those sounds and it doesn't bother me but if my Father laughed in his peculiar way, it would drive me crazy. I can't watch movies with him because of this. I have a hard time tolerating other's conversations, especially if they are on a cell phone. It seems now that I have realized what it is that sets me off I am able to see all the strange things I do because of it.

I have extreme difficulty sleeping without a fan on (white noise). I started sleeping with one on during college to drown out noise (not sure if this is a possible cause). Since then I always sleep with one on. Now I wonder if that was such a good idea and if I stopped, would it help.

My wife tends to talk a lot and has somewhat unstructured conversations and that seems to drive me crazy and makes it difficult for me to understand what she is trying to say. I think arguments are worse because of it too. I can't even imagine having kids and dealing with that noise right now. Has anyone been able to improve this condition? 

One difference I have noticed between my symptoms and others is that I don't really have reactions to mouth noises.  Eating noises such as the fork clanging on the plate DO bother me.

I'm pretty sure that doesn't apply to me.  I get angry at the sound, regardless (usually) of where it is comming from.  The other night I laid down to go to bed and I ALWAYS sleep with a fan on to drown out noises.  I kept hearing this "music" so I got up and turned the fan off to see where it was comming from.  The problem was it was in my head, as soon as I turned off the fan it stopped.  When I turned it back on I could hear it again.  It still made me very annoyed and I had a hard time falling to sleep.