Background noise

Crickets are okay, but only when I feel like they’re okay.

Everyone around me finds crickets to be super soothing but all I hear is a very loud, high pitched ringing noise. 💀💀

I used to get really annoyed by noises that were out of my control, but after years of meditation practice, I learned to accept them (among other things) and am a much happier person. Just remember that these parts of you aren't fixed and can change if you want them to, or sometimes totally unintentionally.

If you have the luxury of time to do so, I suppose.
- 30 minutes one day a week

I alternate back and forth all day long.

I find it disturbing that people can't seem to be in a room without a TV on, even if they're scrolling on facebook. People probably think I avoid them when I'm really just avoiding TV.

Its infuriating to be visiting some family member, having a conversation with simeone, and have to talk over the noise of a TV that they have almost always on. I usually take the remote and at least lower the volume. But eventually someone comes into the room and goes "why is the tv so low?" and raises it again... Why?? We're having a conversation, youre not even watching this shit... So frustrating
- TVs make people feel less alone, its a coping mechanism.

What if the background noise is in fact a series of overlapping, never-ending streams of thoughts in your own head?

I put on podcasts so my own thoughts shut up for a minute
- It’s one of the reasons I’m listening to music so often, and even that doesn’t help sometimes. It affects my sleep too :(

I don't know why, but someone speaking in the background in a language I don't speak drives me insane. It doesn't have to be loud, I don't have to be trying to concentrate on anything especially hard, but if it doesn't stop after a couple of minutes, I basically just have to go somewhere else.

No idea why. I don't think it is any subtle racism, because it's every language. It's like my brain won't let go of trying to understand, and keeps wanting to notify me that it's having trouble and needs my help with it.

I've heard that we hate having to hear people talking on the phone because of how jarring it is to only hear half a conversation. It sounds like you're experiencing something similar where you can't quite make out what's happening, and that keeps pulling it into the foreground of your attention.
You'd go apeshit in my house. My wife is constantly talking to her friends and family, or listening to the news, in Tagalog (Filipino).
Only thing that bothers me is that she can't teach me, and she's an educated teacher! I rock at languages, but she's so critical I can't get started.
- Yeah, a lot of times becoming teacher/student with someone you already have a different standing with just doesn't work out all that well. If it works then great, but if it doesn't then t's better to just have a different person teach you honestly.
  Once I tried to teach my GF at the time something, started talking to her like one of my students, and she absolutely hated the process and rejected it completely. And lo, after talking with some other people because initially I couldn't even tell what happened, I was enlightened.
- A teacher can never really teach someone something. Only the student can learn and the teacher can encourage and help when they get stuck. I would learn how to read Tagalog first. It's not too bad, Latin alphabet and all. Look words up at first, ask her once you get better. At that point your awful pronunciation when you ask about a word will compel her into helping you learn the rest. 3. profit
  And you probably will have a conversation about why you want to learn Tagalog and if I were you I would focus on being able to communicate with her family and enjoy Filipino media with her. And not that you can't understand her private conversations with her family / friends.
That would make sense, your brain definitely is trying to make sense of it because syllables, sentences, vocal emotion, etc are all there, so there are certainly patterns that can be picked up on, but none of it matches the existing language centers you have.
As to why you might get more frustrated than others about it, who knows, brains are weird and I’m not a neuroscientist
- Alternating languages kind of makes me insane. I have to try even harder to understand it, and often it can even take me a minute to figure out what the language is, even if it is my native language.
  Minute isn't exaggeration. Many times I've been listening to some "foreign language" for a while until it finally clicked, "Oh, that's Slovak, my native language."
  If this is in movies I just prefer single-language subtitles.
  I would describe it as my brain having to switch languages on-demand rather than just catching on.
  But for background this is fine. Today the Hungarian I was hearing from ceiling speakers at work didn't bother me, just background noise, only when it didn't make sense it clicked that it's Slovak, again. Quite different even. But when I unfocused it sounded like the same speech junk.
I get the weirdly opposite wherein my brain starts to try to translate it through whatever lexicon I may have, Korean for example don't know a bit but any Romance language or Germanic language getting rammed through the lexiconic equivalent of Frankensteins monster as presented by HR Giger. I try to avoid Spanish, I can understand spoken Frisian.

Tinnitus gang where you at.

Mynoise.net is great.

I prefer the sound of silence.

I don’t mean the song but I’m also fine with the song (it gives me Frission every time I hear it, so it gets a pass.)

As a software developer, I also prefer complete silence and use noise cancelling headphones with nothing playing. The constant screaming tinnitus is enough background noise.

I am wagnetic.

I have had a fan running nearly constantly since middle school I am now 25. I fear the amount of cat hair glued to the blades, it's one of those tower ones with the conical blades. I will not open it to clean the blades for fear that it'll die.

Feels real is real!

I feel like if we continue down this particular meme street, at the end of the road everyone will be considered neurodivergent.

If everyone is neurodivergent then everyone is neurotypical.
- This, tbh.
  I think neurodiversity vs neurotypical is the wrong way of looking at things anyways. I think neurodiversity is a term that describes how diverse the different neurotypes are. Just as with other types of diversity, you can't say there's only one type that's normal and the rest abnormal.
- We did it reddit!
But is everyone saying they must have background noise either 100% of the time or 0% of the time?
I think the meme was worded reasonably well. It could easily have said it in a more broadly relatable way like “I like to listen to music while I work” where many neurotypical people would agree. It’s like how people like to say they have OCD because they clean up after themselves and put things away.

"Background noise" is not a concise enough category to give a consistent answer for either scenario. Different white noises stroke the CNS differently depending on current state of arousal, time of day, body temperature, and more. If I'm irritated, clicking noises make me crave death. If I'm anxious and meditate to solve it, clicking noises can help.

Like drugs, there's a time and place for all but 1 or 2 of them. The ceiling fan click is never a good sound.

Music in headphones: good A show I picked by am not really watching: good A conversation I am not part of: I WILL MURDER YOU ALL WITH A SAFETY PIN

Dang you must be a good surgeon, I would think it would take mad skills to kill with a safety pin.

I'm with "yes". I hate background sound I can't control or prepare for a lot of the time. Anything with words fully ruins my hearing and concentration, particularly if it's right in that range where I can kinda, but not really, hear it.

For high-concentration tasks, it's noise-canceling headphones with music I've heard so many times before there is nothing that could possibly get my brain interested and I can hit flow state on a task.

I can't have anything going on in the background with speaking/singing, otherwise I'll post too much attention to it.

Kind of depends and changes depending on a lot of factors, to be honest.

When I worked in an office, I discovered that headphones + music was the key to productivity for me. When I transitioned to work at home and had a more or less quiet home office to work in, I found that having music going was a bit irritating at times and totally not helpful at the best.

So I guess the deciding factor is whether I have to deal with the ridiculous noises other people make or not?

Are those traits neurodivergent or do they just fall into the "people are different" category?

Mostly 2. I tend to keep my heaphones on with nothing playing on them just to muffle some sounds. Unfortunately it somehow enhances some frequencies. I think it blocks low frequency sound, but that makes higher frequency sound stand out more or smth. It's weird ngl.

sometimes when I feel really agitated I remember to try turning off the music/podcast and go "ooooh so that was it" even though 2 hours ago I absolutely needed that music/podcast to not lose the entirety of my shit

A fan in the background, cool
TV in the background, cool
Children playing in the background, cool
Music in the background, cool
a dripping water faucet in the background, drives me utterly insane
Music on repeat, drives me insane

I had a coworker who considered anything below 160BPM not as music. My flair of music is more like Jean-Michel Jarre's Waiting for Custeau. And the apprentice thought that there was a reason for rap to exist.

What do you mean by that last sentence?

Yes.

I cannot concentrate with music playing.

Literally anything else? Like a truck crashing through the window or someone literally trying to engage me? Zero lost focus, to the extent I was initially diagnosed with a hearing disorder.

Not that that helps get stuff done…

I'm the opposite
- Depends on the music for me. Anything slow or super lyrical tends to break my focus, while more upbeat stuff I've heard dozens of times can help me hit a flow state (or at the very least drown out the goings on around me enough to focus on something). I've had good luck with video game soundtracks, like Bastion or FTL because they tend to be lively without demanding attention.

Mostly the former, but occasionally the latter if I can’t control the latter noise.

Hey, that's me! When I go to the water park, I accept their music, when I go camping, I wanna take an axe to the RV of anyone with a speaker outside. I have one but I keep it low enough that I have to be within 10 ft to even hear it, 5 ft to understand it.

The second one but my wife is the first one…

I like music. In silence there is almost always something else, far more distracting. A faint conversation my brain wants to listen to, music, just background noise.

I also tried noise generators at some point, but that was weird. White noise is annoying as fuck. Brown noise was better, but it made me sweat a lot when I kept it on, and just added some stress.

Where do I stand if, (regardless of my choice in the track or ability to affect said audio emenations) that background noise more or less just scene dressing for the "going insane" bit that's rolling ahead with or without it?

I should get that diagnosis.

Have you all just tried getting a grip?

"Just stop having ADHD dumbass"
Thanks I'm cured.
- Didn't ask you to stop having it. Just to overcome it.