Tag Archives: noise sensitivity

What You Wish For

Posted in HSP, Journey by

In the first post I ever wrote for this blog, I said:

I love silence with a passion. To me, it’s not an absence of something, but an iridescent, sublime presence, that can move me to acute and transcendent bliss.

It’s 4 in the morning, and the great urban noise bowl that surrounds me has not yet begun to roar. Wrapped in a fog cocoon, the night is still.

Too still.

My cat died yesterday. She was the last of her family, and now I am a person without pets for the first time in almost two decades. And I am feeling so, so ambivalent about it. Continue reading →

It’s only a couple of hours

Posted in HSP by

My noise-sensitive readers will have heard this before, probably many times. It never fails to enrage me. As if it’s perfectly OK to render the homes or workplaces of other people unusable, and rearrange their plans around yours without their consent for any length of time! Those are MY couple of hours, and I choose what I want to do with them!

19th century line drawing of a man with a pained expression covering his earsIT IS NOT OK TO INFLICT INTRUSIVE NOISE ON OTHER PEOPLE. IT IS DISRESPECTFUL, PRESUMPTUOUS AND ABUSIVE.

STOP IT!!!

Many people have filters where they can selectively ignore unwanted noise, though even they feel tired after spending hours with persistent background noise. Ignoring takes energy, whether you are conscious of it or not.

For those of us without filters, the experience – and the impact – of unwanted noise is exponentially more intense. And it escalates.

It’s like this: A man with a rubber mallet is standing next to me. He is slowly, rhythmically hitting me on the head with it. With each strike he hits harder.

Or it’s like this: A predatory animal has reached into my skull and captured my brain in its vicious claws. My brain twists this way and that, trying to free my attention for my own use, but it can’t escape.

Noise pollution adversely affects the lives of millions of people. Studies have shown that there are direct links between noise and health. Problems related to noise include stress related illnesses, high blood pressure, speech interference, hearing loss, sleep disruption, and lost productivity.

Environmental Protection Agency

CAUTIONARY TALE

Read James Thurber’s The Whip-poor-will, and if someone in your sphere is complaining about noise you are inflicting on them, listen – before it’s too late.

Sounds of Silence

Posted in About Me by

The heads of two giraffes standing close together but looking away from each other against a leafy background of treesThe irony of this warning against the perils of earbuds was too perfect to keep to myself. Certainly pouring sound in to excess has its risks. But for some of us, ear buds are the bulwark that shuts sound out. I live in my ear buds, waking, and often sleeping – on the street, in the store, on the bus, and even in my own living room. Every day, I am profoundly grateful for the refuge they provide me from a cacophonous world.

I still use the same pair of Panasonic ear buds I reviewed last fall. It’s been almost a year since I bought them, and they are going strong, despite heavy use every day, and many nights. I use them to listen to what I want to hear, but even more as armor against marauding noise that raids my private brain to obliterate my concentration. Why isn’t that a crime??

I have discovered a silent etiquette of ear buds. Putting them in can cause fellow bus riders sitting nearby to tone things down a notch, without my ever having to look their way or say a word. It’s funny how this works with people who probably would not respond well to a frown or a verbal complaint. Are they even conscious of their adjustment, or do they just react automatically because they know what it means when they put in their ear buds?

My perception of walking around in ear buds has changed radically since it first became common. I used to think people who did that were rudely disassociated from the common experience. Examining that viewpoint with more consciousness, I see it’s based on a rather extrovert-centric assumption that all people should always be ready for engagement with others at all times and in all places. Did I ever believe that? Well, if I did, I’m over it now!

 Silence is the sleep that nourishes wisdom.
Francis Bacon

Hear No Evil

Posted in HSP, Introversion, Resources by

Learning that I wasn’t the only noise sensitive person in the world inspired me to be a lot more proactive about avoiding stressful noise. I decided it was time for ear muffs.

Black furry ear muffs with caption - No, silly, not these. If you’re in a place with cold winters, that may conjure up fluffy images, but it turns out there is another kind. Sound reducing ear muffs are made for people who work with loud equipment, or shoot guns for fun, which explains why I never heard of them until I started reading survival tips from introverts and HSPs.
Continue reading →