Autism and Sensory Issues — Brief Thoughts About Loud Music

Why do I like loud music at home, but not at parties?

Music was, and I suppose still is, quite an important thing to me. As a child, I remember feeling so many emotions, listening to chords and vocal harmonies in songs.
Music can lift my mood, and help me to deal with feelings such as sadness more quickly, by listening to music that reflects my mood.

A hi-fi speaker next to a small box of foam ear plugs.
Photo taken by the author.

I like the sound quality to be good, but I'm not someone who spends thousands on hi-fi equipment. Also, I often like music to be quite loud (but not deafening).


Something which puzzles me is that when I go to a family birthday party, the music playing at the disco will often hurt my ears. If the equipment is turned up too loud — beyond its capabilities — the resulting distortion is unbearable to me!


But yet I seem to be the only person affected. Everyone else at the party will be chatting away, enjoying themselves. And I'm covering my ears up, unable to hear what anyone is saying to me!


And at home or in the car, people often say that I play music a bit too loud, and that it hurts their ears — despite it being much, much quieter than at a typical family birthday party disco!


I used to say it makes no sense — but then I found out about autism and sensory issues.

Thank You

I hope you enjoyed reading this article. Please consider supporting me by:

  • Visiting my ko-fi.com page ☕️😊
  • Responding to this article, or sharing it online
  • Reading my articles on Medium

It really helps, and means a lot to me.


* * * * *

This post was first published on my Facebook page on 26 November 2017, before this blog started. It was added here on 4 December 2019.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Why I Left the Autism Support Group

Image
It started off fairly well, but I had to leave in the end My “biscuit emoji” to represent how I felt towards the end. Photo taken by author. Late last year, I started attending a local support group for autistic adults. In a previous blog post , I wrote about my first few weeks there. Back then, I had high hopes — but things did not go very well in the end.  I wanted to share my closing experience, without putting you off trying a group in your local area — which has every chance of having a better outcome than what I experienced. The Beginning of the End At the start of the year, I had a series of ‘bad weeks’ at the group, which made me decide that it wasn’t for me. I stopped going some time around February, and I now feel ready to describe what happened. Almost Alone In early January, I found myself at a table with someone who did not speak. Everyone else was sitting at other tables, and I felt like it would be rude of me to move. It was an awkward situation, and I felt very alone. A
Read more

The NHS Autism Assessment for Adults in the UK — My Experience

Image
A factual look at the steps I went through (ADOS-2 and ADI-R) In this post, I share my experience of the NHS autism assessment process for adults in the United Kingdom, which I went through a few years ago when I was 48 years old. I focus on the process itself, from initial thoughts, right through to receiving the final report. Details about my life, and my reaction to the report, will be covered in another post — this one is long enough already! Hopefully, it will be of interest to those who are considering getting an assessment. Luckily, I made some notes at the time, which proved useful when writing this — I don’t think I would have remembered very much otherwise! Initial Awareness (2014) It was back in the summer of 2014, when I first became aware that I might be autistic. Before that point, I knew virtually nothing about autism. Things began when I attended a talk on Autism and Anxiety by Dr Luke Beardon. I was there simply to support my girlfriend, whose son has PDA syn
Read more

Attending an Informal Meet-Up Group for Autistic Adults — My First Weeks

Image
It took a lot of courage, but it was an interesting experience Many months ago, I found myself wondering what it might be like to meet up with a group of autistic people. I wondered how successful it could be, given that the members would be people who tend to find social situations difficult. And would it be enough, to have nothing but autism in common? Back then, searching online revealed one or two groups within my area, but they all seemed to meet up in the evenings. As a widowed parent with very little support, that meant I couldn’t easily go, because my children were too young to be left alone. So given that I had some doubts, it didn’t seem worth the effort of trying to arrange childcare. Recently, I started realising that my situation has changed, because my children are old enough to be left alone for an hour or two. So I found a group that meets up every week in a small cafe, and went to see what it was all about. (It’s been a while since I’ve put myself outside of my com
Read more