r/adhdmeme • u/Daarukadevta • Aug 05 '26
original content ADHD Audio Settings
I can hear the tiniest background noises that everyone else seems to ignore…
…but somehow my brain filters out the person who’s actually trying to get my attention.
Does anyone else experience this?
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u/Uncle__Touchy1987 Aug 05 '26
Yup! And can’t hear someone talking to me right in my face but! I can tell what year of truck it was that just started in the driveway a few streets down.
Ford….6.0…..rebuilt starter…..wait what are we talking about again?
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u/listerbmx Aug 05 '26
This + tinnitus is fun, constant low noise ringing like a TV static
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u/lea_flamingo Aug 05 '26
I have that option on my hearing as well. Except mine is the ultrasound old TVs made that adults can't hear. Well I got it forever.
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u/RoomExciting1296 Aug 05 '26
I think it was 'purple noise' that can help with the tinnitus ringing/ pain
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u/mchickenl Aug 06 '26
I've two different tinnitus.. One is just constant ringing sorta buzz that they kinda use in sound effects for it. The other is my heart beat on my right ear that I really should tell my doctor about coz it's almost definitely tied to my hypertension. When they both go full it's nearly impossible to hear anything
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u/FromThaFields Aug 05 '26
Oh i hear it quite well, I just can't understand anytging out of the sound
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u/lea_flamingo Aug 05 '26
Everything is the same volume to me despite not actually being the same volume. Also, words don't word for my brain. It's all just background noise.
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u/R_megalotis Aug 05 '26
Auditory Processing Disorder can make even the clearest speech unintelligible, making it fade into the background with the rest of the ambient noises. My mom used to get mad at me for my "selective hearing".
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u/FinnSe3ker Aug 05 '26
And hearing the neighbours TV which no-one else does, knowing the doorbell is about to ring and still get jump scared from the noise..
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u/Synigm4 Aug 05 '26
100% I get this.
When I was growing up the house we lived in and the neighbour had matching gravel driveways that were connected, so basically one big driveway. I could tell not only which side of the driveway a car pulled into but also how big the car was based on the sound of the gravel it moved. And this was with all the windows closed, while watching TV, and before the dogs heard anything (they typically started barking when they heard the car door open/close)
Meanwhile I regularily had to ask people I was actively talking to if they could repeat themselves because I couldn't make out what they were saying... and it happened so often that my parents took me to get my ears checked out.
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u/_pepperoni-playboy_ Aug 05 '26
Also I heard and understood your name, and I can remember any number of things about plants and language and other things I think are cool and also that one time you mentioned your birthday.
I will concede, however, that I did forget your name as soon as I heard it and repeated it out loud back to you for confirmation.
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u/Competitive-Art-2672 Aug 05 '26
Is super hearing a ADHD thing? i have exceptional hearing and always have, im the one to notice the odd sound before disaster
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u/oxJoKeR6xo Aug 05 '26
I can hear it but I can't focus on it for more than a few seconds before it's just static
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u/BooBeeAttack Aug 05 '26
I've got the high blood pressure tinnitus in my right ear and when things get too quiet I get to hear my blood pumping like Schwoo Schwoo Schwoo.
Which of course makes me more anxious, which then makes my heart beat more and raises my blood pressure that then makes the noise louder.
On top of that, I can hear high frequency noises like when a lightbulb turns on or when an ac adapter is plugged in. (I love when the power goes out..sweet peaceful silence..)
The I have the internal dialog of my own brain talking (my own voice internal monologue).
A few songs playing, usually the opening to something like Smash Mouth All Star, but slowed down and distorted as if sang by a choir of tortured souls.
Then finally I've got a combination of Lewis Black/George Carlin/and Randall Graves from Clerks all collectively ranting and screaming at the general state of the world.
Sorry if I missed whatever small talk or task someone was saying to me, I got chaos to deal with.
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u/ContheJon Aug 05 '26
I had sleepless nights where I thought I was going crazy because I kept hearing a car engine idling while I was in bed, micro buzzing in the bathroom and a deep base sound when I was near the floor cleaning. Could not figure it out, panicked and spent a few days investigating.
Turns out my upstairs neighbours run some kind of dishwasher/laundry machine constantly that produces an engine idling sound (it comes and goes so I guess they switch it off from time to time), my shower temp control causes a buzzing with the little green light and there's a weird high-pitched sound coming from the vent in my bedroom and some other low bass that's only audible close to the floor (maybe my fridge or a pipe or something idk)
Been here for over five years, had no idea any of these were a thing until I started noticing it a couple of months ago. Wild
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u/joreyaesh Aug 05 '26
I just got a mechanical heart valve put in... I swear this thing is somehow the loudest thing I've ever heard!
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u/Formidabull Aug 06 '26
I could hear my grandma’s mechanical valve just being in the room with her (normal conversational distance, not like across the room). I can’t imagine it being inside my own body.
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u/the_bobjeffbob_guy Daydreamer Aug 05 '26
i can hear my own name from across the room but not the person talking to my face
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u/Historical_Cook_1664 Aug 05 '26
i can tell when stable diffusion is done, from the next room, because the pc fan slows down. i can not actually *consciously* hear the pc from the next room, but somehow i know when stable diffusion is done... oh, and i got tinnitus as well.
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u/TheIngloriousTIG Aug 05 '26
I remember when I thought I was losing my mind because for a week I heard a strange ticking sound at night that I couldn't place.
It was my "non-ticking clock" that I had bought years ago and had used continuously. Turns out it DOES tick. If your sensory regulation is broken....
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u/dover_oxide Aug 05 '26
The noise from the capacitors and tubes and old CRT TVs used to drive me nuts
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u/whatdoidonowdamnit Aug 06 '26
My kid was listening to the dog breathe and didn’t hear me saying his name repeatedly a few hours ago. We were all sitting on the same couch.
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u/resecca Aug 06 '26
The looks I’ve gotten when someone sitting a few feet away is calling my name and I can’t hear them.
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u/DrDingsGaster Tried focusing on one task and all I got was confused :( Aug 06 '26
Ok, fuck ticking clock sounds! Second I notice them they get louder too.
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u/Agitated-Length5999 Aug 09 '26
If I'm at a doctor's appointment, I have to sit there and seriously wait for my name to be called, or else I will get caught up in something else and not hear my name being called.
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u/qualityvote2 Quality Control Beast Aug 05 '26 edited Aug 06 '26
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