Sometimes I Literally Can't Hear Through the Noise
Do you feel super overwhelmed by noise, but only when you're stressed? Like, at a concert you're fine, but at home the TV being too loud can send you into a spiral? Let's dive into that.
At the end of a super stressful day I find it really hard to tolerate noise. If I sit down to watch TV with my partner and he tries to talk to me while the TV is on I can’t concentrate at all on the TV or him.
I ask him to repeat himself several times and it usually ends up in frustration on both of our parts.
I used to tell him I just had noise sensitivity and couldn’t stand loud noises.
Then one day he walked into my home office and I had my playlist blasting as I was working and he was like “what happened to that noise sensitivity I keep hearing all about?”
Fair point.
So, I started researching it and also asked my therapist about it.
Turns out that:
Struggling to filter out competing noises
Feeling overwhelmed by layered noises
Zeroing in on the loudest noise even if you don’t want to
Getting irritated by environmental noise
Can all be related to ADHD, OCD, and anxiety… three things I have.
ADHD & Sound Sensitivity
ADHD brains don’t always filter sound automatically because we’re hyper aware
It’s hard for our brains to prioritize which sound to tune into when we’re already fatigued so it can choose whichever one is loudest
And when we’re overstimulated, trying to do two small tasks at once can feel nearly impossible
OCD / High Anxiety & Sound Sensitivity
Our brains enter hyper vigilance mode when anxious
Sound can feel like an interruption to the precision we want
Noise can feel like it’s intruding on our ability to get a task done perfectly (even a small one like watching TV or following a conversation)
External noises can clash with our running monologue of our internal voice (that never stops)
Sensory Processing Sensitivity
And then there’s this thing called Sensory Processing Sensitivity; it’s not a disorder but I do believe it affects me.
A highly sensitive nervous system picks on on everything: tone, light, texture, vibration, noise, and subtle changes in energy.
When a nervous system is regulated it can handle tracking all of these things, but when someone is tired or stressed, suddenly one or more of these things can feel like a threat.
Why? Because stress can burn through sensory tolerance, leading to our nervous system “battery” feeling drained leaving us with nothing to handle the extra noise. Sounds blend into a jumbled mess and we feel even more overwhelmed.
What helps?
Well, F if I know!
Kidding …. for me, I know I need about 30 to 60 minutes of complete and total silence. I need to be left alone to “decompress.” That’s what I call it when I allow my brain to just shift off and I try to sit or lay in total peace. Some people probably call this meditation.
According to the research I’ve done:
Sitting in silence in a dark room can help (standard recommendation is 10-15 minutes but I know I need way longer than that if I’m truly tapped out)
Using noise cancelling headphones even if you’re not playing anything through them; I LOVE this tip and use it often.
Playing lo-fi music to mask noise layers; I personally don’t love lo-fi music but I LOVE listening to water noises (waterfalls, streams, rain, etc).
If you have any great tips please share them with me because I’m always learning and love to try new techniques!
I really wanted to share this today because I did feel a little coo-coo when my husband pointed out there are times I love to blast my music even though I claimed to be soooo sensitive to noise.
Turns out there is a reason!
If you find this stuff interesting, come find me on Tiktok @theanxiousoverachiever - there’s a whole community of us trying to figure out life!
See you there!
This resonated with me so much. Thank you for sharing.