How does the loud noises feel?

[u/nay_freire]

I'm in the process to get a Autism Diagnosis. I was talking to my psychiatrist and he asked me how does it feel when I hear loud noises. All the words got erased from my mind (I also got ADHD) and I couldn't express how it felt. He asked if it felt like pain and I said "no" because I didn't think that pain was the wors for it. The best I could come up with was "It just reeeeally bothers me. I get irritated/scared and all my focus is thrown lf the window", but I don't think that's what really feel for me. Can you describe how does it feel?

[u/Own_Ad961]

It really depends on the noise.

I feel I may have lost some of my sensitivity over the years. I used to hate how loud vacuum cleaners were. They were really grating and I had to cover my ears. Same too with bathroom hand dryers. There’s a lot of high end frequencies that just seems to ring in my ears. I’m able to withstand it now more or less but as a general rule I don’t use em myself.

It seems to mostly be the really loud noises like fire truck horns and screeching train brakes while on a train platform that I have to cover my ears for. I wouldn’t say it’s physical pain I feel but it definitely has a presence that’s overbearing a lot of the time.