Sensitivity to Sound?

[spryte]

So, I think there might be a distinction here between "sounds make me nervous, or make me feel unsafe" and "sounds irritate the living crap out of me, sometimes to the point where I want to punch people" - there's a name for that second one, Misophonia and I've always had it a bit...I used to not be able to be in the same room with someone who was chewing on anything crunchy. That actually went away for a while, but now it's coming back, and it's getting a lot worse. I can seriously hear my co-worker crunching on SOMETHING during snack time all the way across the hall from me, and it just makes me cringe inside and makes me like...angry. I have to shut my door. I can't stand repetitive noises, or children shrieking, (my boyfriend and I both nearly ran for the nearest exit at the grocery store last night when a child started shrieking...and you know, I looked back and the mother's just laughing and a woman who walked by laughed and was like...aww...and in my head I'm like...can't you shut your kid up, how do you not realize how rude that is?)

I was looking into therapies for this and came across this which was interesting:

Chelated magnesium supplement. Sound sensitivity sufferers have often been found to have an overabundance of a neurotransmitter called glutamate. Clinical studies have hypothesized that during periods of stress, endogenous dynorphins are released into the synaptic region behind inner hair cells. This is thought to increase the strength of glutamate, causing otherwise-tolerable sounds to be perceived with excessive loudness.

In my practice, 85 percent of my patients came to me with a severe magnesium deficiency. A deficiency in this mineral often leads to anxiety, mood swings, personality disorders, sound sensitivity, light sensitivity, and insomnia. Magnesium has been shown to mitigate the neurotransmitter glutamate while easing the anxiety and anger experienced by someone with most types of sound sensitivity. Chelated magnesium is one of the best types of mineral supplements as it is very small and easy for the body to absorb and make use of.

Magnesium is like...the number one mineral that gets lost during stress. Almost all normal people are deficient in magnesium, so it would probably be doubly true for c-ptsd sufferers.

There's a whole biological dimension to c-ptsd that I haven't seen discussed here yet. That might be interesting.

[spryte]

You're welcome. I meant to include that I have both. I also have a high startle response to unexpected noises, and I'll get a "not safe" feeling if I hear noises that I can't identify.

[Butterfly]

Yup both loud sustained noise or sudden loud noise. Angry arguing makes my stomach hurt so bad. Even someone walking into the room if I'm lost in thought will start me stiff. Sometimes I wind up putting soft silicone in my ears to dampen noise in crowds or full plugs to block the noise completely.

[schrödinger's cat]

I've got a question. Does any of you get more sensitive to noise when they're flashing back to something?

[Butterfly]

It certainly does seem so, the times when I was in full on obvious flashback I just wanted to lay there in peace and quiet. Sometimes reading but sometimes I didn't even want to read

[schrödinger's cat]

I'm asking because my mother was that way. Whenever she is stressed, she needs things to be quiet, and she'll often pull down the blinds so the room is half dark. She'd say: "I just simply don't want to hear or see a single thing." Puzzling, when I was a kid, but it makes sense in hindsight. She was so stressed out - no wonder she wanted absolute silence.

Ironically enough, it means that nowadays I'm getting stressed by half-dark rooms and absolute silence. It feels claustrophobic, like I'm locked up and the walls are coming closer. It makes visits home interesting. There'll be a bright sunshiny day, and my mother will pull down the blinds and close the windows to shut out birdsong, and sigh with relief: "NOW we're comfortable." And I'll be like: "...oh dear."

[Kizzie]

Oh that is ironic Cat, but I guess it makes sense that what worked for her would in the end come to signal something negative for you (i.e., M is having one of those days).

Misophonia - ah yes, tick.  Sometimes when we're in a restaurant and someone at another table is speaking loudly or braying with laughter I can't tune it out and I become seriously annoyed too - sounds like fingernails on a blackboard after a while.  Part of that is just annoyance with people who have the bad manners to be louder than everyone else in the room, but the other is a CPTSD reaction - not fond of loud, boisterous, stage hogging people, have an over active amygdala and am hypervigilant which taken together = sensitivity to loud sound (and strong light and too much movement), especially when I am having an EF. 

I do notice that I am becoming less hypervigilant and reactive though, and that I can stay in my own skin more (not be as outwardly focused), tune out external things better - I suppose because as I convince my IC to come out she is learning that world is not as unsafe and scary and adult me doesn't have to be constantly on guard - something like that anyway. 

[Rain]

Cat and Kizzie, you both have such perfect descriptions ...I feel like I'm there (well, really ...I mean that I'm grateful that I'm not there!)   

[Kizzie]

I just came across this at a site BadMemories posted a link to - http://www.entnet.org/content/hyperacusis-increased-sensitivity-everyday-sounds:

Hyperacusis is a condition that arises from a problem in the way the brain's central auditory processing center perceives noise. It can often lead to pain and discomfort.

Individuals with hyperacusis have difficulty tolerating sounds which do not seem loud to others, such as the noise from running faucet water, riding in a car, walking on leaves, dishwasher, fan on the refrigerator, shuffling papers. Although all sounds may be perceived as too loud, high frequency sounds may be particularly troublesome.

[Rain]

OMG ..can you imagine sensitivity to sound AND developing tinnitus (ringing in the ear)??   NO escape from sound!??! 




thanks for the link Kizzie!

[Butterfly]

actually, sadly, yes. When I close my eyes and all is quiet even with ear plugs I have a constant swooshing in my ears. Sometimes it's a pitched hiss.  It's awful.

[Rain]

Noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!!!!

I am so sorry, Butterfly.   I wonder if by some wild chance a professional, savvy hypnotist can have your brain rewire to not hear what is there.

Or, maybe your cat likes to have fun with you at night and does a "pitched hiss" by your ears.   (bad joke....)   


Sorry you have that, Butterfly.   And to think I sometimes listen to recordings of ocean waves to fall asleep by, and yours are built in.   oh sigh.

[Kizzie]

Oh dear is right Butterfly - yikes.  I have a sound machine like Rain mentioned - I wonder if that would help?  I like the babbling brook.  We even take it when we're on the road as now we can't sleep without it lol.

[Butterfly]

Hissing cats.

White noise drives me batty. The hums and hissing eventually die down, just takes some time for brain to unwind.

[Rain]

Oh Kizzie you got me laughing with you guys taking the sound machine (and maybe Papa Bear now) on the road.   Love it!

Butterfly, that noise bit in your brain would drive me bonkers (well more than I am!).   Yuck, poooey.