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Is Anyone Sensitive To Noise or Odors?

Posted: Fri Apr 06, 2018 10:03 pm
by allesandro
I've always been hypersensitive to noise and smell and while I've heard that sensitivity to noise is not uncommon among dyspraxics I've never heard anyone mention sensitivity to odors. It's often very difficult for me to use public rest rooms, and I can't stand the smell of cigarettes.

Re: Is Anyone Sensitive To Noise or Odors?

Posted: Sat Apr 07, 2018 12:48 am
by SwervingCentaur
Not really odours, but more of noises. I hate sirens, lawnmowers, ticking clocks, ticking clock is the worst one for me.

Re: Is Anyone Sensitive To Noise or Odors?

Posted: Sat Apr 07, 2018 12:18 pm
by Jenny3142
Can´t stand loud noises or perfume. Noise-canceling headphones are a godsend for me.

Re: Is Anyone Sensitive To Noise or Odors?

Posted: Sat Apr 07, 2018 7:26 pm
by Tom fod
Generally speaking I don't think my sense of smell is all that good. I would expect my colleagues to say I'm the noisy one though who I'm stressed I think I'm more affected by distractions.

I believe it is true that many people are more prone to sensory overload.

Re: Is Anyone Sensitive To Noise or Odors?

Posted: Mon Apr 16, 2018 2:26 am
by allesandro
I wish my sense of smell was not good; I think I have some Labrador retriever blood in me somewhere

Re: Is Anyone Sensitive To Noise or Odors?

Posted: Sun Apr 29, 2018 1:26 am
by Laura.marie55
I do struggle with odors, but noise and light are worse. I work on an intensive care unit and I feel I get sensory overload all the time especially the alarms, but the bright lights and odors are really bad too. I find I get quite agitated by it all.

Re: Is Anyone Sensitive To Noise or Odors?

Posted: Wed May 30, 2018 12:53 pm
by MusicL22
allesandro wrote:I've always been hypersensitive to noise and smell and while I've heard that sensitivity to noise is not uncommon among dyspraxics I've never heard anyone mention sensitivity to odors. It's often very difficult for me to use public rest rooms, and I can't stand the smell of cigarettes.
Yes I don't like my mum clicking her finger nails and I don't like tinnitus sounding tones. Very irritating even from a distance, you tell people to stop and they think your being awkward.

Re: Is Anyone Sensitive To Noise or Odors?

Posted: Wed May 30, 2018 12:57 pm
by MusicL22
:bike: also I am very sensitive to smells I once had a nurse say " youre sensitive to smells arent you?" Also smells cause sinus pain like one particular perfume I don't like.

Re: Is Anyone Sensitive To Noise or Odors?

Posted: Mon May 13, 2019 8:50 am
by teena
Hi new on here, hi all.

I am very sensitive to noise, smells, and light. I smelt gas from a small leak that the gas engineer couldn't find initially until he tried again. I smell things way b4 anyone else. My sense of taste is spot on too. Butter especially is noticeable when turning. I get migraines from light and noises at work (hospital). Hate whistles at football matches, ward buzzers and loud talking. Live for a quiet Life lol.

Re: Is Anyone Sensitive To Noise or Odors?

Posted: Mon May 27, 2019 10:12 pm
by allesandro
I can't even take the bright sunshine in summer; even with sunglasses. Smells in summer are much stronger too---can't take the historical section of town in summer because they have horse drawn carriages, which means the smell of horse s***. I also hate the smell of cologne. A few years ago I bought an air purifier with a charcoal flter--it's a life saver if you burn something on the stove.

Re: Is Anyone Sensitive To Noise or Odors?

Posted: Sat Jun 15, 2019 4:37 pm
by HelenJ
Jenny3142 wrote: Sat Apr 07, 2018 12:18 pm Can´t stand loud noises or perfume. Noise-canceling headphones are a godsend for me.
I'm exactly the same! I hate perfume as it always goes straight to my sinuses and gives me a sort of 'pinching' feeling at the top of my nose. I work in quite a loud office and there's a lady who's really nice but she has a laugh that I cannot stand. It's a proper cackly laugh and it goes right through me.

I also hate the sound of loud motorbikes and car alarms.

Does anyone else hate the jumbled up noise when two people are talking to you at once, like if you're on the phone and someone next to you is also talking? I find I can only concentrate on one conversation at a time.

Re: Is Anyone Sensitive To Noise or Odors?

Posted: Sat Jul 06, 2019 7:02 am
by Susan69
I can tell when my neighbours in her garden as soon as I open my back door as she wears her perfume so strong! Hate having to get in cars when people are picking me up to go out as they often have strong aftershave/perfumes on and the radio blaring out, with the car engine going and them talking it's just too much to process in one go! plus long car journeys make me feel sick due to the vestibular elements (never been able to cope with rollercoasters/fairground rides without them leaving me feeling sick, dizzy and disorientated)

I had hearing problems as a teen (in the 1980's!) due to thyroid meds being lowered by a significant amount and it was such a relief after having really hypersensitive hearing as a child. I was so disappointed when I felt my hearing was returning that I didn't tell anyone (I was in college at the time) and kept the hearing aids to block sound instead, putting dud batteries in them so all environmental sounds were muted to a volume I could tolerate! They worked way better (with tube blocked, dud batteries and clear glue over external microphone point) than anything else that was available at the time (mainly only those little spongy ear plugs) that were useless! No-one ever realised! ..and I managed to achieve a degree by learning to sign and using interpreters and note takers to help me keep up in class.

I have since discovered you can actually still have a sensori-neural hearing loss AND have hyperacussis and tinnitus together. I was also diagnosed much later (age 27) with Autism so when I was young and didn't know I had autism i had no understanding of social consequences, (that I was supposed to feel guilty for lying about my hearing coming back) neither did I have the language to explain my hearing properly. eg I'd say 'I can't understand what people are saying' (which I had no idea was auditory processing disorder cos I'd never been told I had autism!) Dr would say...'you have hearing loss due to your thyroid'. There was no internet back then and so the Doctor must be right cos they had specialist medical training, so that's what went on my record! I was in my 40's before I understood!

Re: Is Anyone Sensitive To Noise or Odors?

Posted: Sat Jul 06, 2019 8:00 am
by Jim
I do get over sensitised quite easily. For me the triggers are people noise, crowds and to a lesser extent smells.

I hate people noise. I really do struggle cognitively to make sense of people noise. It’s although my brain is very slow to interpret speech. People without knowledge of these conditions tend to speak very quickly and often not clearly by complacently blurring many vital sounds that complete a word. It’s bad enough being with just one person. In a room full of them with lots of chatter going on simultaneously or several people trying to speak to you at once, then it gets very uncomfortable. On top of that there will be other interference noises like electrical equipment, computers, fans etc and it all becomes a wall of unintelligible noise to me.

I must come across as very hard of hearing to some people, because I constantly have to get them to repeat themselves. But it’s not the hearing that is being the problem, it’s the sensory overload and cognition.

How on earth I’ve ended up working in a busy office environment on the phones.. ? It’s almost beyond me 🤣

And It’s just as bad on the phones. People don’t seem to notice or understand that if you have your mouth to close to the mic, it distorts the sound. The amount of times I have to struggle making sense of sound on the phone. Different sounds seem to merge into one! And it becomes difficult to differentiate between different letters, numbers and words because they all sound the same. It’s even worse if you get someone with a very high pitched echoing accent. And then you still have all the other noise interference around you.

I also get easily wound by crowds. I don’t like it when someone else is too close to me, it’s although I can physically feel them and it really impedes my concentration. So naturally shops, shopping centres, walkways etc are pretty stressful for me. Combine that with the people noise because naturally it comes as a package and we have a double whammy. I don’t avoid going to these places, as it’s a necessity but I get tired and irritable very easily. I’m always seeking out the bit which has less people traffic. Because the over sensory element does rather make you want brutally punch the oblivious louder and more inconsiderate people around (I don’t do that obviously)

I don’t mind smells as much. Obviously cigarettes, vapes and overly powering perfumes are gross, those can bugger off because they are very distracting. But mown grass, baking bread, pop-corn, fried chicken etc, love it. I have this weird thing where a certain smell will trigger memories in me and transport me back to a different time.

Re: Is Anyone Sensitive To Noise or Odors?

Posted: Sat Jul 06, 2019 7:56 pm
by Susan69
you should have a read of these posts I found about hypersensitive hearing. I found two great articles. one was a case study of a guy who was actually found to have hearing loss even though he'd put his fridge in a shed outside so he couldn't hear it hum and boarded up windows. There is a condition where the brain receives any sound as unbearably loud and its actually something to do with some hairs in your cochlea not working and other hairs and the brain over compensating.

case study

https://www.audiologyonline.com/article ... ining-1105


explanation of what 'recruitment' is

http://hearinglosshelp.com/blog/recruit ... explained/

It's the clearest explanation I've found where they guy explains it using the analogy of the hairs in the ear being piano keys. I never realised you could actually have a sensori-neural hearing loss and not realise at all because your brain is perceiving everything as 'too loud'. Tinnitus can make things difficult too. I've failed hearing tests at the 'quieter but higher pitched sounds' range cos I couldn't distinguish whether the noise was from the machine or in my head cos I have more of less constant tinnitus which can be so loud it has actually woke me up in the past!

I've woke up convinced the boiler was firing up in the middle of the night cos I could hear it from the bedroom but of course when I went into the kitchen it wasn't even on (a C is displayed on the boiler when the central heating is coming on) and the radiators were still all cold! ..or convinced I could hear white noise from the sky box or dvd player (from another room) but when I've gone in they were turned off, put my ear right up to them and heard nothing! so it does sometimes make me wonder whether ALL my hearing returned fully or are some of the noises just in my head from the Tinnitus?

Re: Is Anyone Sensitive To Noise or Odors?

Posted: Wed Jul 10, 2019 7:24 am
by bongoblue
I really am sensitive to noise, to the point i used to have panic attacks in really loud places. I have been successful at managing through using mindfulness. I don't know if this would work for everyone. Oddly, i am very under sensitive to oder and smell. Which is my superpower as I am a nurse.