I've always thought I must be stupid... Later I found out that I'm not stupid however. I am distracted not only by noise, but by my own thoughts. I can be trying to listen to someone and begin thinking that they're clothes are nice, or their shoes are dirty... or that they look like someone else I knew long ago... My mind then will think of the person I knew long ago, and then I'll recall the situation/circumstances in which I knew them... I'll recall the season, perhaps it was winter and I was always bundled up in a coat.... Then I'm thinking of what kind of coat I want to buy.... Meanwhile I'm looking at this individual and they're talking away thinking I'm following them. I can't read with the tv on. I can't sleep with the radio on. I keep listeneng for the next song to come on hoping it is better than the last... etc. I have trouble multitasking..... But, if I can't try to move from one thing to another frequently rather than staying involved in one thing at a time, I get anxious because I feel the need to move on.

My mom used to watch tv and read paperback mystery novels at the same time. I thought she was brilliant. Thats just something I couldn't begin to do. Sometimes I read a paragraph and can't recall what I just read. Sometimes a song gets stuck in my head and I hear the melody over and over so that it drives me nuts. I'm not very hyper, though. I just seem to be easily distracted.

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I've always thought I must be stupid... Later I found out that I'm not stupid however. I am distracted not only by noise, but by my own thoughts. I can be trying to listen to someone and begin thinking that they're clothes are nice, or their shoes are dirty... or that they look like someone else I knew long ago... My mind then will think of the person I knew long ago, and then I'll recall the situation/circumstances in which I knew them... I'll recall the season, perhaps it was winter and I was always bundled up in a coat.... Then I'm thinking of what kind of coat I want to buy.... Meanwhile I'm looking at this individual and they're talking away thinking I'm following them. I can't read with the tv on. I can't sleep with the radio on. I keep listeneng for the next song to come on hoping it is better than the last... etc. I have trouble multitasking..... But, if I can't try to move from one thing to another frequently rather than staying involved in one thing at a time, I get anxious because I feel the need to move on.

My mom used to watch tv and read paperback mystery novels at the same time. I thought she was brilliant. Thats just something I couldn't begin to do. Sometimes I read a paragraph and can't recall what I just read. Sometimes a song gets stuck in my head and I hear the melody over and over so that it drives me nuts. I'm not very hyper, though. I just seem to be easily distracted.

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My 8 year old son is ADHD and he is bothered by loud noises....he used cry when the fire alarm at school would go off. I have not noticed the softer noises bothering him so much but I am also a teacher of special needs/behavior kids many of who have ADHD and I notice it with them. I encourage my students to listen to their IPods when we are working independently so that they are not distracted by others. It seems to help by keeping them in their own zone and they produce better quality work. I have heard that gum chewing also helps to remain foucsed.

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My wife just pointed this site out to me after we had a fight because she has insisted on playing the Tetris computer game next to me in bed. The constant, irregular tapping of the keys just raises my frustration levels through the roof. I sent her an apology text the next day telling her about how as a computer major in college I couldn't use the computer labs if there were other people there. I've been very hesitant about the idea of being ADD, my therapist only suggested it this summer after seeing me for 7 years and I don't like to think of myself as "having a problem". But reading some of what people are saying here I just go, "Oh My God, that's it exactly what I go through!" I used to hate my little brother when we were children because he would chew with his mouth open and I have trouble eating dinner if there is a mouth chewer at the table. If there is someone in a classroom who does that thing with their leg where they move it up and down real fast I have to sit so I can't see them and even then it bothers me just knowing it's happening. I love loud music, but can't stand hearing music that is muffled through a wall. If my daughter is watching TV while I am trying to sleep I have to make her turn it down so it is completely inaudible in my room. My wife will be laying beside me saying "I can't hear it at all, leave her alone" while I can't get to sleep because I can just barely hear it. Ear plugs are out of the question because I have so much trouble waking up in the morning that I just sleep through everything if I have them in. So thanks for starting this thread, it helped me come a little more to terms with having this issue and it also helped my wife get over being angry with me for being such an ass about her game.

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Noise irritation does not generally bother me unless it is high pitched. Certain ring tones just make me want to crawl away and hide from them.

My younger brother used to have such sensitivity to cap guns and firecrackers that he would go literally BOLT away from the scene of the noise. Once we lost him for a short period of time. Another time, he locked himself in the bathroom and started slamming and banging things.

The funny part with me and my brother is that it seems to be only CERTAIN noises that bother us. He could be around a loud motorcycle or racing car engine that was almost deafening and love it. But show him a firecracker and he would start hollering and crying.

The good news is that my brother did outgrow his sensitivity and my problem does is under control, just by will power. I may get irritated, but I can generally control my reactions.

Best of luck to you and yours.

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Noise irritation does not generally bother me unless it is high pitched. Certain ring tones just make me want to crawl away and hide from them.

My younger brother used to have such sensitivity to cap guns and firecrackers that he would go literally BOLT away from the scene of the noise. Once we lost him for a short period of time. Another time, he locked himself in the bathroom and started slamming and banging things.

The funny part with me and my brother is that it seems to be only CERTAIN noises that bother us. He could be around a loud motorcycle or racing car engine that was almost deafening and love it. But show him a firecracker and he would start hollering and crying.

The good news is that my brother did outgrow his sensitivity and my problem does is under control, just by will power. I may get irritated, but I can generally control my reactions.

Best of luck to you and yours.

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Thanks to all of you out there for helping me to accept myself even more. I am a newly diagnosed adult with ADD, My great irritation to certain sounds makes sense to me now. When eating, if someone slightly scrapes their metal fork with their front teeth, as they are removing it from their mouth, I become very irritated. If they eat their whole meal this way, I just die inside of myself and try to close my ear closest to them. I was married for many years and every complaint he had about me seemed to be associated with my ADD symptoms. He left me two years ago. He didn't understand why it was so important to me for him not to bite his fork. He attributed it to what he saw as one of my many idiosyncrasies. I now have a friend that scrapes his fork on his teeth. Because I was so criticized by my former husband, I thought it would be impolite for me to request this of the new person in my life. After reading what all of you have shared, I now know that irritation with sound is something to be expected from many people who have ADD. Other sounds that can irritate me are: loud, unexpected noises, crying children, improvisational jazz and metal utensils scraping in metal pots.

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I can't stand it when people whistle. Even people who know how to whistle well. And naturally people are whistling because they are happy. So you don't want to squash their good mood by asking them to stop. This happens between my son and I. I feel terrible asking him to stop and he understandably doesn't like me to ask him to stop. However, if I try to ignore it or block it out it just frustrates me more and I become irritable to a person who was previously in a good mood. So I get perplexed by this all the time. If I try to block it out he or my husband are offended and if I listen to it I become irritable. So it is a losing battle either way. I feel terrible that something that makes my son happy irritates me, but I cannot help it. It is anyone who whistles that bothers me. So I can easily relate to the noise issues.

When people wrote about typing on the keyboard that was something I never thought of being related to ADD. But then putting other noise related distractions together made me realize the correlation. I too can relate to those who are distracted by typing on the keyboard. When I worked in a cubicle, I had to constantly put on noise canceling headphones with no audio playing just to block out noise distractions. And when I would find myself putting on the headphones just because of the steady typing by one person, I use to get mad at myself for letting it get my attention so easily.

Anyway, thanks for everyone's responses here. It's helped me gain perspective on why certain things have bothered me so much.

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I've wondered all my life why others' gum chewing and cereal crunching and other eating noises drive me crazy. Have thought I was too intolerant. I've learned so much from this site about my condition. My grandson, who is smart, cannot seem to finish one semester of college and may never return. I'm convinced he may have ADD but he's stubborn and refuses to consider the idea. I've taken Strattera for a number of years and it has changed my life. It helps so much, and since I was diagnosed with ADD I'm much more able to accept myself knowing that I have this condition. In spite of it, I fianlly finished college at age 37 and was able to raise and support my children on my salary after going to work. Thank you, ATTITUDE, for all your good work.

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Yes, I too have this problem not to mention other noise distractions. I really noticed it about a year ago during a convention. There was a man sitting directly behind me sucking his teeth and the waitress in the back of the room was removing the glassess and they were clanking together. I have no idea what the presenter was saying. During class, other students rustling and turning pages are irritating. Sometimes trying to discern important information from distracting noise can be exhausting. However, medication does help.

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I used to use sound machines to screen out background noise... (Like bubbling brook sounds.)

Now, Pandora's "Spa Music Channel" is my new best friend. http://askdreric-schoolpsychologist.blogspot.com/

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For me, it depends on the type of noise. Someone whistling drives me insane. I just can't stand it. Clapping at a certain pitch also makes me crazy. Other noises that I think would bother me don't so much.

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once when I was desperately tired and children were squealing with delight in their play and each squeal was like electricity going through me, I was forced by necessity (I couldn't move off my bed where I was trying to sleep) to deal with the problem with the only resource available--my thoughts. I told myself to reinterpret the squeals as positive signs that all was well and to choose to respond positively. So when they would intermittently uncork a zinger I thought "Way to go!" or "Horray!" or "O joy!" It worked beautifully. I only heard a few with the new mind set before they actually lulled me to sleep. As I read your comments the news is on in the next room and the annoying interruption is being dealt with in the same way. I choose to interpret the "noise" as a neutral "sound" and the meaning as a positive indication that the world is working as it should. That is, that people are on the case dealing with situations. Immediately, I am absorbed in your writings oblivious to the TV. For a while-until the announcer's voice intrudes again-then I apply the same remedy. I did this half a dozen times while reading this entire thread. I have applied the strategy of a change of attitude to two extreme situations involving death and dying and had success there too. The formula is: find a reason to believe that someone is benefiting from the situation you are being made aware of by the stimuli (be they sights or sounds or feelings) and choose to be happy for them. You will find you can forget or be inattentive to the stimuli when you forget or ignore yourself. Basically you choose being happy for others over being unhappy for yourself. The key for me is to find some good to be the fulcrum of the see saw so that the miserable side goes down and the joyful side goes up. Just as one adjusts a see saw by moving the center of gravity one can move the center of gravitas i.e. importance away from oneself and toward a counterbalancing good and find that an elevation of mood results. This is not an altruistic martyrdom or a kind of masochism. When one chooses being happy for others over being unhappy for oneself, the part of oneself that rejoices in the good is being satisfied. The theory may be a hard sell but the practice is very simple, Merely say something like "Whee!" when your nerves are discomfited and remind yourself of the good being done and your brain will be contented and your emotions will follow.

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Oh my Lord YES! I am hyper-sensitive to noise. My least tolerable is mouth noises. Sometimes I get up 2 minutes into dinner because my husband is chewing ham and he's breaking up the fat with his teeth, which sounds like he's grinding his teeth. Ugh.

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