Managing Sensitivity and Finding Relief

Welcome to Meet My Autistic Brain I'm your host, the Artistic Woman I discovered autism late in life and in this podcast, I share my experiences and challenges so you can learn what it's like to be autistic. Imagine living in a world where you were constantly aware of the sounds of daily living This was what a recent workday was like for me. Every few seconds, the heavy exterior office door opened, then quickly and automatically slammed shut. The motor on a paper towel dispenser sounded like a woman screaming at me and then it stopped with a loud clunk The air conditioning fan reminded me of a helicopter People are talking on the phone or to each other all around me Add printer sounds, microwave beeps The Hamma fluorescent lights, and you have an autistic person's nightmare bombarded by sound It's no wonder we're exhausted by the end of the work day Contrast that with a recent Saturday morning I noticed that something was different. There were no revving engines Hell barking dogs No lawnmowers Not even the birds chirping those few hours of quiet were bliss And as we know, silence is a relatively rare experience. Sound sensitivity, which is rather common in autistics. is a condition where everyday sounds can seem uncomfortably loud or even painful This sensitivity can lead to challenges in daily life. making places like busy classrooms, crowded stores or noisy restaurants overwhelming It can lead to anxiety distress, and even meltdowns. Sounds that seem normal to others can be unbearable to a person with sound sensitivity. Research suggests that between fifty percent and seventy percent of autistic people experience it at some point in their lives Sound sensitivity is sometimes referred to as sensory processing disorder, decreased sound tolerance Misophonia. hyperacusis and phonophobia. although some researchers believe there's a distinction between these Sound sensitivity affects an autistic person's life, making school and workplaces difficult Attending concerts and fairs may be too much auditory stimulation for autistics. can affect relationships. Fctioning and peace of mind On a daily basis, an autistic person encounters and is hyper awware of what seems like a barrage of sounds Some are pleasant, such as our favorite music Other sounds can be a problem. And there are those which many of us prefer to avoid. like The vacuum cleaner And particularly the adjustable vent that controls suction. I hate it a fan or air conditioning, blow dryers and clothes dryers ificant car engines refrigerator, dishwasher, ice dispenser and washing machine. The dryer door shutting The sound of cabinet doors closing put felt bumpers on all of my How does sound affect the brain The amygdala is a limbic brain center that has a role in responding to noise stress When the amygdala is activated, chemical processes occur that can eventually lead to disease. Stress hormones are released into the body and prepare us for fight or flight. thereby causing changes in heart rate, blood pressure, cardiac output, blood glucose, or lipid levels sleep patterns, electrolytes, and more So what is it about sound that annoys our brains It can be one or more things The sound's frequency, the duration, how long it lasts Qantity. How many cells we hear all at once how often are repeated and the volume What do noise or unpleasant sounds do They interfere with sleep They interfere with concentration. They can affect our mood They can cause damage to our hearing They can cause physical pain can cause an emotional reaction like anger can cause chemical reactions in our brain and body that can lead to disease Let's talk more about the elements of sound that affect us Frequency It's the property of sound that determines pitch Our hearing is the most sensitive in the frequency range of two thousand to five thousand hertz There's some frequencies of sound that can be more disturbing than others On october fourth of last year, we heard, or we're supposed to hear, a test of the emergency broadcasting system You know how absolutely disturbing and annoying it is. I guess that's the point. The sound we heard was between eight hundred fifty and ten fifty hertz The emergency alert isn't just an annoying frequency, it's also disturbingly loud I'll talk about decibels or loudness later in this episode Our hearing changes over time There are frequencies a forty year old person can't hear that someone younger can. A healthy ear can hear a wide range of sounds from twenty hertz to twenty thousand herz seventeen thousand four hundred hertz is a frequency that only teenagers can hear twelve thousand herz is hard for anyone over fifty years of age to hear eightight thousand hertz can be easily heard by anyone with normal hearing And here's some trivia An emergency distress beacon The kind used by ships and planes transransmits at a frequency of four hundred six megahertz because that's the frequency satellites can pick up in the event of a distress activation Direction How long it lasts When I hear a particularly disturbing sound and it lasts for a while, I can feel the energy travel up the nerves in my arms and to my ears Th start to hurt It's as if my eardrums are screaming, stop. there is a sustained sound that's unpleasant. I have to get immediate relief by using earplugs, earplug alternatives, or noise canceling headphones. I have to leave the area or whatever else it takes to be somewhere quiet Some autistics flee the area as quickly as they can A short duration noise might disturb me, but in some cases, there's less of an effect than a long duration sound quantity or how many sounds are happening at the same time Maybe there are sounds with a frequency that isn't disturbing, at a volume that isn't too loud, and where no particular sound is sustained Can sound still be disturbing to an autistic person Yes, and many autistics don't like being in crowds in part because of their sensitivity to noise There are multiple conversations going on person over there will yell Someone's dog may barr An announcer may be announcing, an elevator opens and closes The noise might even echo if there are hard surfaces or high ceilings way too much coming at a person all at once cururntce rate or how often the sound is heard I'm not particularly fond of dogs barking I've accepted that I live in a city and we all make various amounts of noise at different times Sometimes a dog will bark If a dog barks for a long time, then I'm not happy It affects my nervous system so much that all I can think of is that I want it to stop Recently, someone moved into the neighborhood with a small dog that barks frequently, albeit for a short time frequency, which I call shrill Coupled with the repetition makes me very uneasy. barking is unexpected and occurs at all times of the day and night. Loudess or decibels The loudness of a sound is measured in decibels. A whisper is thirty decibels Normal conversation is about sixty According to the CDC, Noise above seventy decibels over a prolonged period of time may start to damage your hearing Loud noise above one hundred and twenty decibels can cause immediate harm to your ears The emergency alert system I referred to earlier sends out two tones between seventy and one hundred decibels notot quite enough to cause immediate damage yet loud enough that it can't be ignored. Of course, decibels make a difference in our reaction to sound When my neighbors had their carpets cleaned, there was a large truck in front of their house with the engine running. There was a cleaning device that led from the truck into their house. I didn't know a carpet cleaner could be so loud, and the noise continued for two hours to that point It was the worst reaction and noise that I've had where I realized it was due to sound sensitivity A safe range is sounds up to seventy decibels, which is the same loudness as a vacuum cleaner or dishwasher. Sounds like the following can cause hearing loss A garbage disposal, which is eighty decibels A dog barking or hairdryer is one hundred A car horn or emergency vehicle, one hundred and twenty and a jet taking off or a jackhammer, one hundred and thirty You can have hearing loss if sounds are long or are repeated and are at or above eighty five decibels Proximity also matters as it affects loudness. However, I find a leaf blower blocks away from my home to still be disturbing Can we get used to noise or habituate to sound? Habituation is a decrease in response to a stimulus after repeated presentations. Some believe that by exposing autistics to the very sounds we dislike, we'll get used to them and they won't bother us anymore Aistics have significantly less ability to habituate to sound That means that exposing us to unpleasant noises repeatedly does not typically result in our getting used to them or being okay with them We don't adapt in the same way a person without sound sensitivity would adapt. Some studies indicate that repeated exposure to unpleasant sounds can actually exacerbate the discomfort, or in other words, make us more sensitive What, if anything, can we do about sound sensitivity There are some remedies for annoying sounds such as noise canceling headphones and earbuds earplugs that black only certain frequencies earplug alternatives And earplugs that eliminate most sounds, like the ones we might use to sleep I've talked about colored noise in another episode which introduces sound at different frequencies to essentially block the annoying sound and add a more pleasant sound There's another device called an earplug alternative that directs sound in a way that in essence reshapes the ear, meaning the area where sound would normally bounce before entering the ear canal is modified to correct for distortion You aren't aware of the difference the way you would be if you turned the volume up or down on a TV set You just aren't aware of the noises that are unpleasant Your brain is not triggered in the same way it otherwise would be Some earplugs can cause a person to hear their own voice inside their head Some earplugs work by muffling sounds I don't want sn completely blocked unless I'm sleeping. Something that's making a difference in filtering or dampening sound is acoustics room design can reduce or eliminate echoes There are wall panels that can absorb sound and now are more readily available to the general public Some roads are paved with rubber asphalt made from recycled tires, and that reduces road noise It benefits the drivers and the neighborhoods adjacent to busy roads For some of us, a combination of these methods might be useful to give us some relief We need sound to keep us safe at times, but autistics are more sensitive than we need to be to these sounds. We're on high alert, even when we don't have to be Sound has positive benefits Our sensitivity to sound may be one reason we feel good when we hear music. It can calm us and relieve anxiety. It can promote a positive mental state Sound stimulates the brain. and at times that's too much for an autistic person Sound helps form memories and relate to and express emotions Sounds of nature can soothe us whether it's annoying or whether it's pleasant, sound connects us to the world Contact me at info at theatisticwoman. com I love hearing from you I want you to know that your support makes the podcast possible Many of you have donated, and I am so grateful You can contribute on Cofi, PayPal or Patreon There are three previous episodes about sound that I encourage you to listen to. I'll put links in the show notes I appreciate you. So please keep listening. Tell your friends and family about the podcast so they can learn what it's like to be autistic This has been Meet My Autistic Brain. I'm the Autistic Woman.