Alright, I was born with Asbergers, this has always affected my hearing and sensitivity to loud noises, despite me being deaf when born. It got a lot worse when I was a little kid a firework went off in front of me. I have been terrified of fireworks ever since. Though I have started using an Ipod to block out the sound. I still can't watch fireworks without them and the volume loud, accidentally several fireworks went off after a fireworks display and I had already turned off my Ipod and I freaked out at the last fireworks display. The biggest problem is, that it REALLY affects my life. I'm scared of sirens, motorcycles and balloons. I can't be around balloons at all without getting very nervous, especially if it's little kids holding them. My mom dragged me to a play last year and they were giving out balloons as props to all the little kids. I was surrounded by them and barely made it through the play despite me begging my mom to bring me home because of how badly I was getting, I jumped at every small thing and the balloons popped all around me when I came home a pretty bad wreck.The problem is also there's a ton of festivals that go around in my town and all of them usually have balloons. The sirens and motorcycles affect the way that I walk and get out of the car. If a motorcycle revs it's engine without the muffler which thankfully has become illegal in my state, I freak out. A few years ago a siren went off next to me without warning and I've been jumpy around them ever since. I want to seriously break this problem and/or get my mom to understand why it terrifies me so much. She seems to take it as a joke and/or not seriously and blows it off as: "You always blow things out of proportion." when I try to explain it to her. Or in the play's scenario, thinks of it as an excuse for me to get out of it because I hate going to the plays. Any ideas?
I figured I wasn't the only person with a similar fear, but I did not know it would be someone else on the forum. My issue is when I do not have a warning for the loud noise, which is why I am able to handle thunder. I cannot help you with balloons and little kids, I am sorry, I also am working on this one. With fireworks, the loud noise, I am not too sure if it is because you cannot handle the noise or if you did not expect it. My brother had a problem with fireworks for a while and we taught him a game, where he would try and whistle and make a noise as the firework popped. We made it so it was a kind of guessing game for when the firework would go off. He still has trouble with them sometimes, but the game we created helps out. The reason why I am not sure how to help you, is that I am not sure if visual cues would help you out. KInd of like lighting and thunder (I am afraid of lightning but I will give this as an example). Most of the time, when lightning is seen, thunder follows after, and most people expect it. I do not know if you are still afraid even when you expect it. If it is that case... I am sorry, but I will not be able to be much help.
Yes, it is when it's unexpected mostly. I went to the fourth and fireworks were going all over the place. Even after an hour and a half listening to my Ipod I flat-out refused to go to another fireworks display on our beach because of all the fireworks going off around us unexpectedly. They made fireworks legal in my state and it was insane there with fireworks going off at the beach properties, the beach itself and sometimes only five to ten feet away. It was way overkill for me. When I expect it, I'm usually okay, but I still get nervous around an object. If I see a little kid around me with a balloon, I immediately move away from the kid. Part of this is because I have had balloons pop around me. There's a lot of careless people who don't realize they can scare someone with their actions. For instance, a guy was jumping on balloons in a lobby when we were leaving at a restaurant and barely apologized when I freaked out seconds later when he did it again. Another instance was that I was walking with my mom and a siren went off right next to me, causing a very violent reaction with me where I collided into my mom to get away from the noise and go into a fetal on the ground. The cop actually turned around and apologized for doing that before leaving, which angered my mom more. With those two incidents, I find myself way more jumpy around these things because I always expect it to happen now. Thanks for your advice though, I'll try it. Anyone else with ideas?
I would say sudden, but the thought of something going off makes me jumpy enough to affect my real life also. Loud noises expectedly except fireworks and sirens are usually okay for me.
This is the only reliable method to get rid of phobias I' ve ever heard of : http://www.wikihow.com/Get-Rid-of-a-Phobia-by-Deconditioning Unfortunately the nature of your fear makes it a ***** to devise a deconditioning regiment, if you plan things then you know they' re coming. I can think of two ways to get around it : - Think of public places that are bound to have unexpected loud noises sooner or later. Go there and read your favorite book or something. Try to focus on how great the book is (or on anything else positive : the nice weather, that pretty guy ...) rather than on the background noise. - Ask a friend to come to your place and spend the afternoon with you. Give him a balloon and a needle and instruct him to pop it unexpectedly, when you can' t see it coming. Next time he comes give him two balloons, then three etc ... up until ten.
Don't worry, you aren't alone. Phobias are quite common and some are easily treatable. I do think that your sensitive hearing may have been a factor to start this as loud noises would have made you more jumpy causing a more horrible reaction then something with average hearing. It's natural to jump at loud noises as we probably evolved that way in order to aid survival (so we could get away from scary situations etc. and survive to pass on these traits to the next generation). Anyway, I'm guessing it came about from conditioning- you hear a loud noise, you jump, you dislike jumping ergo you start to fear anything that can cause it. Sadly, it won't get any better unless you confront it. Your phobia is a specific phobia which means it's a lot easier to treat then something like agoraphobia (fear of open spaces causing people to remain house bound) and I hope your fear of loud noises doesn't develop into that. Anyway, knowing the cause will help with treatment as you really should battle the cause if you want it gone forever. There are various ways that can help but I think systematic desensitisation will probably be best which is what Patman posted: Learning some deep breathing techniques is a good way of relaxing yourself without the use of drugs and this will be useful when you feel anxious to calm yourself Produce a tiered list of fearful situations starting from something with a tiny fear factor and making your way up to unexpected loud noises. (So, it could be a friend clapping behind your head unexpectedly and when you feel anxious try the deep breathing to calm yourself until you feel better and then once you can handle that level of fear then go onto something a bit worse like a friend shouting or something) Keep going until you don't feel anxious or at all fearful around loud noises. Do any tier as much or as little as you feel comfortable with. This therapy works at deconditioning you but I do think going to see a doctor and asking if there is anything that can be done about your sensitive hearing could help but you may not need it. You can be free from this fear and I understand that it's definitely not an over reaction, I hate it when people don't take phobias seriously as they can be extremely detrimental and destroy mundane life and I really don't want this to happen to you. I am no doctor and there may be other explanations, deeper explanations, to why you fear loud noises or it could simply be down to conditioning a fear into you. You'd probably have a better idea then me and I really hope this makes sense as my brain is in sleep mode but I hope it helps : )
"Any ideas?" Rant. I won't lie, I'm being hypocritic when I say this, but rant to her. Tell her that you're not blowing things out of proportion, it's the fact that you have a (I don't mean this in any offensive way if you took offense I am so sorry)mental issue that's the cause of it. Tell her that she needs to stop acting like it's nothing when it's something that seriously affects you. If she won't listen then do something that will definitely get her attention and make her think seriously about it, like screaming at her, although if it gets you in trouble then I'm not sure that's a good idea. Hope you convince your mother, and while you're probably going to stay with the fear of noises for quite some time, I hope you atleast get some luck to a solution to that problem.
Yeah, I have a bad equilibrium and overall bad balance so loud noises can actually, no-bullshit knock me over. There's no way to really explain it to her, just act on your own best interest. Stay away from them/block them out if you can. Or just sit her down and make it explicitly known that you can't deal with it.
