Inspired by a recent thread. This question might be triggering, so be careful. For me, even imagining these sounds is mildly upsetting.
Basically, which noises immediately ruin your day? For me it’s mostly sudden loud sounds, in order of most awful descending:
Tap for sounds
- Unmuffled compression brakes (when trucks or buses stop and go BANG)
- Smoke detector / emergency alarms
- Emergency services sirens
- Balloons popping
- Car horns / honking
- Angle grinders
- People practically smashing plates while violently washing dishes
- Vacuum cleaners or other power tools
- Yelling / screaming
- Alarm clocks
Surprisingly I don’t seem to hate “commonly hated” sounds like: nails on chalkboard, tinnitus, knife on plate, styrofoam rubbing, microphone feedback, babies crying, chewing, snoring, flies, repetitive tapping, dog barking.
Once, I went to a birthday party where the parents let their kid jump on the balloons and pop them one by one on purpose. I had to leave immediately.
If I wear earmuffs, it basically solves the issue. So I’m careful and on the lookout for situations that could make these sounds. I cover my ears with my hands if I don’t have them on me.
High pitched brass/string instruments
Corrugated cardboard rubbing against itself
Dull non-mechanical pencils on paper
Machine guns/explosions (war-heavy video games come to mind)
Ads. I can’t explain it but just ads, period.
That’s off top of my head but I could probably come up with 20 more lol
Oh yeah ads are horrible…
Actually, a pro tip I discovered years ago, when live TV was the thing, and you had so so many unskippable ads. Either cut the sound or the visuals. Mute the TV during ad breaks is the easiest solution, it makes it much less overwhelming (buy now buy now buy now!!!). If you can’t do that, try closing your eyes. I found that reducing sensory input by 50% really made it much more tolerable!