Sounds I’m Sensitive To as A Person with Sensory Anxiety

Sounds are life. I wish I wasn’t sensitive to so many of them, but that’s the reality. I don’t know if my hearing is better than most (probably not), or whether the sound is just turned up really loud in my head. It’s embarrassing holding my left ear closed and crouching down until the sound passes during theatre rehearsal when the intercom comes on above my head, or being delayed during a fire drill because I can’t tune the noise out enough to move. It’s embarrassing being warned by your parents when there’s about to be a loud noise, and there are things it’s hard for me to do, like go outside to see the fireworks or going to a football game. There are things I love that happen to be loud (like my dog, who’s really quiet in general, but whose barks are deafening) and celebrating the Fourth of July and New Year’s because I love my country, but find fireworks hard to tolerate. In the long run, though, what matters is being with the people I care about (and making sure I’m at least not cut off from the noises that warn me from danger). I’ve learned to deal with SPD and the challenges that come with it. I have some heightened senses, and that’s okay. I’d like to give some perspective about what it’s like to live with sensory anxiety. 

So here are my top 20 worst sounds (in order from worst—#1—to most tolerable—#20):

 1) fireworks

2) Thunder

3) The lawnmower (when I’m near it)

4) The fire alarm

5) ice makers (sometimes)

6) really loud music or TV

7) the buzzer at volleyball, basketball, or football games

8) yelling/screaming

9) dogs barking

10) balloons

11) nail gun

12) drums or tuba

13) trucks with loud engines

14) the whistle at recess 

15) the crackly Botox machine

16) microphones (sometimes)

17) cursing

18) the intercom (sometimes)

19) most ringtones turned up really loud

20) sirens

Top 5 Quotes About Strength

1.  Strength doesn’t come from what you can do. It comes from overcoming the things you once thought you couldn’t.  —Rikki Rogers

2.  Strength is when you have so much to cry for but you choose to smile instead. —Unknown

3.  A strong person is not the one who doesn’t cry. A strong person is the one that cries and sheds tears for a moment, then gets up and fights again.—Unknown

4. Tough times never last, but tough people do. —Robert Schuller

5. Courage doesn’t always roar. Sometimes courage is the quiet voice at the end of the day that says, ‘I’ll try again tomorrow’.” —Mary Anne Radmacher

Life Skills

 I will be one of the first to admit that I do not possess many life skills. But I have recently gotten better. I’m not sure exactly why it’s hard to use my hands sometimes. I guess it’s a CP thing, but I have learned to work with the way my hands are. Here is a list of  things I have learned to do in 2021-2022.

1) I I learned to carry my dog.

2) I learned to unclip my dog’s harness.

3) I learned to wash my hair by myself.

4) I (mostly) learned to tie my shoes.

5) I learned to eat properly with a fork.

Anything is possible. Ever since I was very little, I was always frustrated about the lack of things I felt I could do. When I was three or four, it was writing. I couldn’t really hold a pencil. I know that most of the tasks on my Life Skills list are simple daily routines, but to me, they are a big deal. I am grateful to my parents for pushing me and helping me to become the more independent person I want to be. I still have a lot to work on—like putting my hair in a ponytail—but I’ll do it.

I might do some things more slowly than others. I might not have found my own way to do those things yet. But that does not mean I’m giving up.

I am going to follow my dreams no matter what. That might sound cliché, but I don’t care. I will become a physical therapist. I will help people.

It will take time. It will take effort, patience, courage, preserverance. In that case, I’ve been practicing my whole life. 

As my math teacher put it once, some things might take more “elbow grease” for me than for others. That’s okay. It might mean finding another way to accomplish my dreams. That’s okay.

I will go to college. I will have a career. And I’ll do it while being myself.

These life skills are the first step—and I’m happy with that. I’ve had to take baby steps. It took me time to walk, but after that, I kept going.

This list is a baby step. That’s okay. I’ll get to the big ones when I get there.

“It does not matter how slowly you go, as long as you do not stop”. — Confucius