I’ve heard that this is instinctual. We have evolved to find crying and upset children intolerable because it motivates us to do something about it.
Children are also exceptional and figuring out how to push our buttons because they instinctively find and repeat behaviors that get a reaction out of their caregivers when they desire attention.
Unfortunately the most motivating emotions are often negative ones.
When hurricane Beryl hit us, Target was on generators with very minimal lighting and no music. It was such a great shopping experience, that I flagged down the manager and asked them to do this full time.
There's a supermarket nearby that has a 'quiet hour' every day, mostly aimed at neurodivergent customers. I try to go at that time, it's a much less stressful experience.
Some noise I do like though, if a store is dead quiet it feels like you can't talk to anyone or even ask a vendor a question without being the attention of everyone in the surrounding area. There is a bit of privacy to a bit of noise. Though I agree to much is terrible.
That was last night at the family gathering. Why was the tv volume on at all? Everyone was shouting to be heard over everyone else. The amount of questions directed at me and me not able to string two thoughts together to reply intelligently because someone turned it on some bakeoff marathon and then hid the effing remote.
Thankfully, the family understands that I'm not anti-social. I just can't sit in a room with the TV on and two grandchildren listening to iPads all at the same time.
I have plenty of tasks in my office or in the garage.
At one office i worked in the guy on the other side of the cubicle wall from me was a loud eater and constant snacker. Drove me insane. Sound of people eating just completely puts me on edge.
Unfortunately in the US people are OBSESSED with dogs. Everyone has one and so many people just leave them outside to bark and bark and bark and bark and bark and.... :/
Yeah I used to go for a walk at my old neighborhood and one dog would start barking then the next and the next and soon I would have the whole neighborhood barking just by walking around the block.
Also my old neighborhood my neighbor will leave for work at 6:00 in the morning and his dog would woefully and loudly bark for a solid hour after he left.
My folks bought a new house and got all this expensive LED lighting installed everywhere and they ALL run at such a low frequency they look like strobe lights to me. I hate it so much.
Microfiber towels sticking to dry skin on your hands like velcro. Soggy sandwich bread. The way cotton balls feel and sound when you pull them apart. Non-skid on bare feet. Wooden utensils or popsicle stick wood on my tongue. Being touched by dogs with wet beards. Trying to sleep in bed with dirty feet. Synthetic fragrances.
I kind of understand why these things bother you. They don't really bother me, except the synthetic fragrances, but I can get the gist. It's kind of weird.
Where do I even start? The one that affects me most is that I absolutely can't stand wearing any pants at all.
I hate the texture of all sorts of porridge and oatmeal with a flaming passion. Wearing a coat indoors for more than five seconds makes me want to punch something. When you're at a beach, come out of the water, and your feet are covered in sand. (bonus points if you're trying to put shoes on)
Sandpaper. Dry skin. Dry clay on my skin. A lot of plastic things. Body hair touching me. Dry lips. Sleeves that are too tight around the armpits. Neon colors. Those fucking bright lights that look like they're made for the purpose of blinding people. Flashing lights. The sound of people chewing or even swallowing loudly. Nearly all beeping sounds.
Pants - Do you also not like wearing any shorts? If you don't have any problems wearing shorts, then how long does a short have to be to stop being a short and start annoying you?
Porridge - What about macaroni or chilli ? Do you know that jelly thing with bits of fruit chunks in it? What about that? What happens if your cereal gets too soggy?
Coats - Do you live in a warm/humid region? How do you cope with winters when it gets cold? Does a sweater feel different than a coat?
I'm with you on the sand-on-your-wet-skin-at-the-beach thing.
Sandpaper is supposed to be irritating. But is there any correlation between your thing against Sandpaper & the sand-on-your-wet-skin-at-the-beach thing?
Dry skin? Is it because it reminds you of Sandpaper or sand-on-your-wet-skin-at-the-beach ?
Dry clay - again, is it correlated to the sand-on-your-wet-skin-at-the-beach thing ?
Plastic things? Like plastic things just existing & minding their own business or plastic things that touch your skin or the ones that you're in contact with? What about the kind used in hospitals for IV fluids? Or the so-called BPA free that is used in takeaway containers or food storage?
Body hair touching you - WHOSE body hair? Your own body hair or somebody else's body hair? Does it remind you of wearing a coat? What do you do when you are trying to get physically intimate with someone? Do you avoid the hairy body parts? Aren't they the most fun?
Tight sleeves around the armpits - yeah, I can imagine that. Now I don't want to imagine it anymore.
Neon colours? - okay. To each their own.
Yes, people using those bright lights should have Gorilla Glue put in their eyes.
Flashing lights - Do you also not like the small twinkling fairy lights? What about blinking festival lights? Do you also not like any flashing traffic lights? Do you ignore flashing traffic lights?
Eating or chewing loudly is a sign that you were not loved as a child. I'm with you on this.
Beeping sounds - what do you plan to do when you have to be in a hospital? Say you have to visit the dentist & there are beeping sounds from their machines, you'll have to bear the beeping sounds along with your toothache.
Oh I've only ever bought one turtleneck. Couldn't get over the feeling of needing to throw up even after attempting to wear it for hours. It is no longer with me.
If you are like me and looking for nice holiday lights that won't hurt your eyes, check out Technology Connections on YouTube who has tested all the brands and found two that include soft blue lights! I am investing in them soon because I miss having colored lights.
YES. This stuff just feels sticky. As if it's latching onto my skin and creating the same feeling I get when someone is rubbing two pieces of Styrofoam against each other, only this time literally palpable.
We have one of you at our zoom COVID pub group. We try to not chew the chips and peanuts around our you but we forget. But we do think about your issue all the time. Sorry.
I hate things on my face. Glasses, masks, creams, etc. Covid mask requirements drove me crazy. Still followed them because I'm not an idiot or an asshole, but, boy was I always happy to get the fuck back to my car or home so I could remove it.
I also hate cacophonies. A single loud sound is annoying but not unbearable. Being in a crowded space where hundreds of people are talking, even at a normal volume, however, is maddening. I used to have recurring nightmares about people coming up to speak to me and when they opened their mouth, it was just that murmuring sound of a large crowd. Shit gives me the willies. 😬
An indoor range? Never. Plenty of outdoor ones. Mostly as a cub scout, so it was all super low caliber shit (.22s and shotguns). that wasn't really all that loud. Loudest thing I ever fired was a random 30 ought 6; only ever knew it as that. Even with ear protection, that thing hurt to shoot.
being indoors, surrounded by concrete and firing guns tho? I can only imagine it being pretty bad.
The sound of a metal utensil squeaking against a plate. Nails on a chalkboard. Dry skin on dry paper. The smell of tobacco smoke. The sound of a modified or worn out muffler on a car or motorcycle. The tickle of a runny nose. The tickle of drops of sweat running down my face and back on a hot day.
Many many things! Notably though: having anything on my hands (I cook and bake by stocking paper towels and an empty sink and reminding myself constantly I can stop and wash at any time), anything too tight clothing wise (this is so much stuff it sucks), strong perfumes, the scent of peanut butter, feeling a glass that has not been cleaned (it feels ugly)
-Oil/butter on the cap or outside of the bottle/container it's in. I don't want to feel the oil when turning the cap or opening the container.
-Spaces that ventilate so hard the air feels dry and just makes you thirsty (most retail spaces).
-New car headlights that might as well be your brights.
-Standing in shower water. I need that water to flow down the drain.. if it starts backing up, I'm not showering. I'm cleaning out the drain.
-How to describe this.. my feet in the winter will be cold without socks, but with socks they tend to get warm enough to sweat which then makes them cold and now wrapped in a sock. There's no winning.
When you're at the beach or some body of water and the dirt, mud, or sand gets on your hands, you get out of the water and start to dry off. I despise the feeling when your hands dry out.
Agreed on chalk and similar feels.
In Germany we have sweets called "Traubenzucker" (according to my quick web search they are dextrose sweets) which also have this feel and it's even worse in the mouth.
Biting into meringue is also quite uncomfortable to me.
Not much, but I have nerve damage from injuries and surgeries that drive me nuts. I'd rather they be painful than the half numb, "wrong" feeling I get.
Any sort of collar on a shirt except surprisingly dress shirts. Also tags on shirts, but those are slowly disappearing so I'm getting the option to not buy tagged shirts.
I blame it on an itchy wool sweater I wore when I was a kid that is my earliest sense of the feeling.
Just talking/thinking about itchy collars can give me goosebumps!