# I'm getting really weird about sounds and noise.
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-getting-really-weird-about-sounds-and-noise/561070
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
**Created:** [November 18, 2010, 4:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-getting-really-weird-about-sounds-and-noise/561070 "2010-11-18T04:45:49Z")
**Posts on this page:** 8
**Page:** 2
### Author:  [@67java89](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/67java89)
#### Post date: [November 20, 2010, 6:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-getting-really-weird-about-sounds-and-noise/561070/21 "2010-11-20T06:58:39Z")
I have a low tolerance for irritating noises when I’m trying to work. Seems to getting worse as I get older
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### Author:  [@dzero](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dzero)
#### Post date: [November 20, 2010, 8:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-getting-really-weird-about-sounds-and-noise/561070/22 "2010-11-20T20:00:28Z")
> [@rachelellogram](#):
>
> With bananas it is not the banana being peeled, it’s the sqush qush skwigk slurp sound of it being masticated. It is truly horrifying.
How can you possibly hear that? I have fairly good hearing and I would have to be within at most 3ft of someone to hear that. I guess I might tune it out subconsciously, but as long as someone eats with their mouth closed, there’s no way you could hear this without sitting on their lap.
I’ve only read the last few posts so far, so maybe I’m missing an important detail, but I can’t imagine what.
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### Author:  [@iamnotbatman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iamnotbatman)
#### Post date: [November 20, 2010, 9:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-getting-really-weird-about-sounds-and-noise/561070/23 "2010-11-20T21:03:09Z")
> [@dzero](#):
>
> maybe I’m missing an important detail
Important detail: people are slobby, un-self-ware assholes, who often _do_ chew with their mouths open, or otherwise somehow manage to chew in an obnoxiously loud manner.
😉
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### Author:  [@Silent\_Kal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Silent_Kal)
#### Post date: [November 20, 2010, 9:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-getting-really-weird-about-sounds-and-noise/561070/24 "2010-11-20T21:19:58Z")
I have depression and anxiety, along with an unusual sensitivity to sound. Never thought to connect them before. Eating noises, phones ringing, obnoxious laughter, whispering, and ticking clocks are some examples. Also- and I am **not** kidding- Michael Bolton. One of his songs was playing at the grocery store and I had to rush and find a spot where the sound didn’t reach.
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### Author:  [@Rachellelogram](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rachellelogram)
#### Post date: [November 22, 2010, 9:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-getting-really-weird-about-sounds-and-noise/561070/25 "2010-11-22T21:42:32Z")
> [@dzero](#):
>
> How can you possibly hear that? I have fairly good hearing and I would have to be within at most 3ft of someone to hear that. I guess I might tune it out subconsciously, but as long as someone eats with their mouth closed, there’s no way you could hear this without sitting on their lap.
>
> I’ve only read the last few posts so far, so maybe I’m missing an important detail, but I can’t imagine what.
I have amazing hearing. And I think you’re fixating intensely on something that’s not terribly relevant to the situation. If you think I’m lying or exaggerating, then say so. If not, then accept my point of view as it is. The end.
Kal–it’s so hilarious that I hate Michael Bolton (almost) as much as you do! But thankfully I never hear him anymore. My mom used to listen to him on a daily basis after a rough divorce and I guess it really got her through… kinda had the opposite effect on me, though.
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### Author:  [@descamisado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/descamisado)
#### Post date: [November 23, 2010, 7:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-getting-really-weird-about-sounds-and-noise/561070/26 "2010-11-23T19:36:41Z")
> [@descamisado](#):
>
> I have a version of this sensitivity too. It’s mostly the susurration of music coming out of other’s head phones and the clacking of typing of on a keyboard, plus a few others.
Oh, fucking great.
After 2.5 months of being on the highest, least populated and quietest floor of the firm, now that they’re fililng up, I get a new cube neighbor.
Guess what? She plays a radio at just that volume that drives me freaking nuts – low enough not to be music or talk but not loud enough to be distinguishably either. Aaaaarrrrrrggggggghhhhhhh!!!
What the fuck did I do?
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### Author:  [@dzero](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dzero)
#### Post date: [November 23, 2010, 11:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-getting-really-weird-about-sounds-and-noise/561070/27 "2010-11-23T23:23:29Z")
> [@rachelellogram](#):
>
> I have amazing hearing. And I think you’re fixating intensely on something that’s not terribly relevant to the situation. If you think I’m lying or exaggerating, then say so. If not, then accept my point of view as it is. The end.
>
> Kal–it’s so hilarious that I hate Michael Bolton (almost) as much as you do! But thankfully I never hear him anymore. My mom used to listen to him on a daily basis after a rough divorce and I guess it really got her through… kinda had the opposite effect on me, though.
I wasn’t implying that your statement was a lie, although you probably won’t like the thought that did occur to me either. If a sound annoys me, all I need to hear is the tiniest, faintest bit of it and my mind fills in the rest so it FEELS like it is coming through in 7.2 Dolby surround sound. If you have hearing that is well above the human average, that’s great. Well . . . both a blessing and a curse I suppose.
> [@descamisado](#):
>
> Oh, fucking great.
>
> After 2.5 months of being on the highest, least populated and quietest floor of the firm, now that they’re fililng up, I get a new cube neighbor.
>
> Guess what? She plays a radio at just that volume that drives me freaking nuts – low enough not to be music or talk but not loud enough to be distinguishably either. Aaaaarrrrrrggggggghhhhhhh!!!
>
> What the fuck did I do?
I had that problem at a job once. Asked my boss to talk to theirs and nothing was done.
So I bought an FM transmitter and modified it to boost the power. I tuned it to the station they listened to and shut them down completely.
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### Author:  [@CanvasShoes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CanvasShoes)
#### Post date: [November 24, 2010, 3:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-getting-really-weird-about-sounds-and-noise/561070/28 "2010-11-24T03:36:37Z")
Peri-menopause did this to me for a bit of time. Sound and certain motions, like people absently kicking the back of a chair or fidgeting. GAH. Are you at about that age (or I should probably ask if you’re even a woman…giggle!).
I also noticed similar occasional symptoms like that when I was younger, around the time of “Charlie’s” visit.
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