I can certainly relate to this! I don't understand why we have to be inundated with background music everywhere and it is always so loud.

I used to enjoy the silence of a doctor's office. I could have sat and read magazines all afternoon. It was quiet, no distractions.... Unless I was waiting to have a root canal, I found it to be relaxing.

Now, they all have bad background music or worse yet, a blaring tv. And to me the volume is ear-splitting. It is the same in the grocery stores. I just try to get in and out of there as quickly as possible.

But worse than the sensitivity to the volume issue is the inability to determine where the sound is coming from. I can hear fine but I cannot tell where the sound is coming from.

It doesn't matter if it is a bird tweeting, a person talking, someone calling me, a mower running.....I don't know which direction the sound is coming from.

This is especially bothersome when I am driving and I hear a siren. I have no idea where the emergency vehicle is until I see the flashing lights!

This symptom bothers me more than the volume sensitivity. It can actually be frightening at times.

I thought I was just about the only one on the planet with this problem!!!
Even if it isn't the Fourth of July noises, or certain noises can make me so irritable, even hostile! Right now I am near tears due to the constant noise and there aren't even any fireworks yet!

I have scrounged up a couple of earplugs that help but I am almost beside myself from the hummming, buzzing, etc.

I am looking up the nutritional possibilties right now. At least I am not alone with this!!

Right there with you on the sensitive hearing thing, and it seems to be getting to be more intense with the passing of time. I love silence.

Trying to understand one person who is speaking while there are others speaking, when there is music playing or any other background noise going on is nearly impossible for me.

Engine (lawn mowers, generators, pumps etc) and close by traffic noise gets my 'anger motor' running, which is odd because normally I'm not prone to anger. Why do some people need to rev or roar their engines as they go along in their cars?

The binging and bonging at checkouts are right up there with the announcements and music played in stores. How do the clerks stand it hour after hour?

When I stay at my father's place, I usually take my camper, park it in his driveway and stay in that because his house literally hums with all the appliances that go on and off day and night. On top of that they have a Westminster style clock that chimes every 15 minutes, which they say they don't really hear anymore.

I can't even stand TV. I haven't owned one for years and politely leave if I'm at someone's place and it gets turned on.

Glad that I live in a fairly quiet neighbourhood but there is a park 100 ft away where they hold concerts and events in the summer. Some band is down there playing now and I may as well have a stereo playing in my living room. Willy the dog agrees with me on this. He's camped out under the coffee table.

Canadians are pretty tame when it comes to fireworks. Yahoo! They are highly regulated where I live and one needs a special licence to purchase them and set them off.

Wishing you the sweet sound of silence.

With love, Erika

During the summer we seem to attract a host of ATV riders to our street. We are a dead end wooded street and it leads to a dirt road that leads to the lake, and a dirt trail that runs behind our house. We find folks from states away show up on our street to TEACH their young family how to ride one. ARE YOU KIDDING ME!?! The noise makes me crazy! Zipppp....Zoooom....brrrr....its ILLEGAL to ride an ATV on the street unless its street legal and then its supposed to be kept to the trails, not the roads. DH went out to slow a few down and they flipped him off. Do we really need to spend each summer weekend chasing off folks that jump up and down our road, have children with no helmets, zip thru our yard ruining our grass or flowers, and then they flip you off and keep going! By the time you call the cops it takes hours for them to get to you. By then they are gone.

Screaming kids! STFU! Please, if your children are being fussy, over tired, rude, rambunctious or just plain old over active GET THEM AWAY FROM ME! I want to bang their little heads together. I want to slap the parents and say HEY! Go get your brats!

my worst enemy...a bouncing basketball. thump thump thump for hours! followed by the screaming of teens who are now surrounding the dang thing. GO AWAY! Years ago I paid a friend in town (when I lived in florida) to drag it off. He showed up at 2am and took it. It was set up under the street light which was right next to my bedroom window. BANG BANG BANG! He took it to the boys club parking lot and dropped it off. I felt guilty for a while, but once the quiet set it at midnight and I could sleep again. I got over it. LAter on I found out those boys had stolen it from the boys club to start with ! so, returning it there was a good thing. I wont tell you that later on I had that light busted out so it wasnt like a landing strip in my room, even with black out curtains.

QUIET! just be quiet! why must folks be on the cell phone all day everyday? what do they all have to talk about? in the bathroom, the check out line, the bank, the MD, the concerts, the park, the gym, and so on. SHUT UP! no one actually gets time to just sit and think anymore.

Oh thanks Dejibo. I thought that I was just being a crank. Maybe I am...but I do practice patience and when that doesn't work, I hide.

With love, Erika

This is first post, please bare with me.
***Will give you great insight and understanding concerning both.
American Tinnitus Assocition
HYPERACUSIS is sensitivity to noise.
TINNITUS is the noise you hear from your ear.
You can also google search both these conditions. I have had both since 2006.
In my case they are disabling. Please read info on these conditions, many side effects from both. One being lack of focus and cognitive problems. I am so sorry can not communicate well, but will be glad to answer anyone's questions if I can help.

Good Luck!

Every so often it hits me too. And like you, I thought it was just me. Some things that work for me: Turn off an appliance that buzzes to get a few minutes quiet, and headphones for falling asleep.

Next time my family mentions my hearing problems I can let them know this is normal for MS. I wish I wasn't normal. I have most everything that was mentioned here plus one more.
I live in Alaska and 10 seconds before I feel an earthquake, I hear it. Kind of low rumble.

I don't have sensitive hearing but little noises bother me like eating or the sound of silverware clinking or heavy breathing. Is there a name for that. I have had it since I was a little girl. Snoring drives me crazy but my pet snoring doesn't bother me. Only humans.

The greatest irritatant for me is children squealing. Today's kids are the most obnoxious generation ever born. I feel a need to avoid most public establishments because they refuse to kick out other customers whose children squeal or otherwise act disruptive.

I feel like I'll have to be a shut-in for a lifetime because nobody cares that the world is overpopulated. They just keep on having more & more squealing spawn. Now, unlike other cases of shut-ins I've read about elsewhere on PsychCentral, I will still go to the grocery store myself every week, Target every month, & work if I ever find another job. But look...I have developed a strong aversion against the childed majority for their lack of consideration.

I don't go to clubs or bars because communication is impossible with everyone shouting over everyone else & I would be the only person there that knows a conversational amount of American Sign Language.