What's normal and what's not.

[Guest guest]

I joined this group because I'm extremely sensitive to the sounds of all of the above. However, I have to say that even though I'm hyper- sensitive to certain sounds, some of the sounds that people here are talking about would drive ANYBODY nuts. Can anybody imagine a mate whistling to ice cream trucks outside on a regular basis? All of my friends would go nuts, living with someone like that. I think it's important to differentiate between the kinds of sounds that drive us up a wall that don't affect other people and the kind of sounds that bug EVERYONE. For instance, gum smacking and popping. If a poll were taken, I would imagine that the majority of people in an average, American town, would be irritated with that sound. Also, someone with an exaggerated, open mouth, noisy, sloppy eating habit would drive anyone I know, nuts. It's the little, tiny noises that I hear that the majority of the population don't pay attention to. When my husband slurps his coffee, when the spoon hits his teeth...etc, but if I'm with a group of people and everyone is eating together, I don't notice these things. It's only when we're sitting alone together with the TV volume turned low or off completely that I climb the walls. Also if I'm eating at the same time, it's not as bad but I REALLY hear everything when I'm sitting next to him and he's eating alone. He also doesn't have the best table manners and wasn't raised with them so makes it worse. Anyway, I'm just saying, lets not mix up what's normal irritation to most people and what is specific to our condition.

Vicki