It’s no secret that our upbringing and experiences can lead to anxiety. While genetics plays a role in the development of anxiety, stressful experiences may reinforce fear and other negative emotions, causing anxiety to emerge.
Hypersensitivity or “oversensitivity” is extreme sensitivity to a specific experience, such as sound. Auditory hypersensitivity or hypersensitivity to sound may include sensitivity to specific triggering noises or loud noises in general. Individuals with auditory hypersensitivity experience distress upon hearing the triggering sounds. Some people with anxiety may experience this type of sensitivity.
Understanding the Variations of Noise Anxiety
Hypersensitivity to noise is somewhat of a broad term as sensitivity may cause varying responses. Depending on the way a person experiences anxiety, the triggering noise may cause minor irritation or something much more impairing.
Generally, the following represent auditory hypersensitivity. Remember, your experience may be different from others’ experiences:
Specific Noise Triggers
Some people develop sensitivity to particular sounds. Often, these sounds are related to past traumas or recurring causes of anxiety. This type of sensitivity is the product of conditioning. Conditioning occurs when a specific trigger elicits a response. With respect to auditory hypersensitivity, this may be the experiencing of a negative feeling as a result of a specific sound: your mind immediately associates a sound with some negative feeling or experience. This symptom is very common in those with PTSD but may affect people with all types of anxiety.
Quick Startle Reflex
Anxiety causes your body to constantly be on high alert. The greater the stress and anxiety you experience, the more likely you are to have a higher natural baseline for stress. If anxiety levels reach a certain height, a person may be more prone to being startled, often described as being “jumpy.” This is due to the body being on high alert for danger.
Irritation
Anxiety may cause irritation. Irritation can cause people to experience a rush of negative emotions when they hear loud or triggering noises, or sounds that disrupt the thought process. Disruptions of silence may be particularly likely to trigger irritability.
Stress-Related Tension
Finally, when a person is feeling anxious, physical symptoms such as tension headaches or nausea may result. A person experiencing these symptoms may be especially prone to auditory hypersensitivity. Certain sounds may exacerbate these physical symptoms or increase the general feeling of unease associated with anxiety attacks. In some cases, a person may perceive noises to be louder than they actually are.
All of these fall under auditory hypersensitivity as they are all ways in which you and your body react to sound.
It’s also important to remember that you can experience this type of sensitivity even when you don’t feel anxiety or have anxious thoughts. Anxiety is largely a physical experience. You may find that you are tense even when your thoughts are relaxed and calm. This may lead to the presence of hypersensitivity.
Controlling Your Reactions to Noise
Dealing with hypersensitivity can be difficult, but help is available. Cognitive behavioral therapy has proven to be extremely helpful for individuals experiencing many symptoms of anxiety. Exposure techniques in particular may be useful for reducing hypersensitivity.
What is Exposure Therapy?
Exposure therapy is the process of gradually being exposed to your anxiety trigger in a safe and controlled setting. Over time, your anxious reaction should decline and eventually be eliminated. It is recommended that a person start with the least distressing form of their anxiety trigger and work their way up to experiencing the actual trigger.
For example, if you have a fear of spiders, you might start by thinking about spiders. Once that no longer causes significant anxiety, you may move on to looking at photos of spiders. Next, you may move on to videos of spiders, then spiders across the room, then a spider right next to you, and finally a spider on you. You only move on to the next step when you no longer experience anxiety at the present level.
How to Apply Exposure Therapy for Noise at Home
If you would like to attempt to implement exposure therapy for noise at home, you can follow the steps below:
- Figure out what sound you’re most sensitive to — especially the one that you want to be less sensitive to over time.
- Make a recording of the noise.
- Sit in a place where you’re comfortable, and just think of the noise initially. Practice relaxation techniques if you notice your anxiety level rising.
- Once you are able to tolerate imagining the sound, follow the same procedure while listen to a recording of the noise. At first, you will likely experience intense anxiety. For this reason, it is important to be prepared to implement relaxation techniques. The recording is going to bother you a great deal.
- While you’re listening, do something that relaxes you, for instance, meditation or deep breathing. There are plenty of techniques you may use to calm your body so that your anxiety symptoms feel easier to tolerate.
- Gradually increase the length of time over which you expose yourself to the sound. Eventually, you’ll find that the sound causes a lower level of distress than previously.
- To truly master exposure therapy, you may wish to repeat these exercises in progressively less calming environments. Thus, you may fully extinguish the negative response to the trigger.
These exercises will help you to build tolerance for the sound and decrease your hypersensitivity.
Once you have reduced your hypersensitivity, you should continue to learn to cope with and manage your symptoms of anxiety in order to prevent the recurrence of negative symptoms and the future development of hypersensitivity.
SUMMARY:
Sound sensitivity may be the result of trauma (including PTSD), or it could be a symptom of anxiety, known as “hypersensitivity,” that occurs when people are in an anxious state. For specific sound-related anxiety, exposure is one of the more effective ways to reduce its severity. For hypersensitivity and other forms of anxiety, reducing the anxiety overall is the best way to treat it.
- If you have phonophobia — also called sonophobia — loud noises can feel overwhelming and cause panic and anxiety.
- Phonophobia is not linked to any type of hearing disorder but may be more likely if you have anxiety or are on the autistic spectrum.
- Treatment approaches include exposure therapy, cognitive behavioral therapy, and relaxation techniques.
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Loud noise, especially when unexpected, can be unpleasant or jarring for anyone. If you have phonophobia, your fear of loud noise may be overwhelming, causing you to panic and feel extremely anxious.
Fear of loud noise is referred to as phonophobia, sonophobia, or ligyrophobia. This condition is not caused by hearing loss, or any type of hearing disorder.
Phonophobia is a specific phobia. Specific phobias are an extreme, irrational fear of situations or objects that do not warrant that intense a reaction.
Like all phobias, phonophobia is a treatable anxiety disorder. It is earmarked by an overwhelming dread of loud noise.
A person with this condition may experience deep distress about a loud noise they know is coming, as well as by an unexpected loud noise.
When is a fear of loud noises a phobia?
Loud noises can be unpleasant and uncomfortable. Rare is the person who enjoys an incessant car alarm, or shrieking ambulance siren. Some loud noises, such as those made by fireworks, may be more easily tolerated since they’re associated with pleasant things. These are experiences most people can relate to.
However, if you have phonophobia, you will experience a highly intense reaction to any type of loud noise, no matter what its association or cause.
People with this condition feel deep stress and anxiety when they anticipate loud noise. They also have extreme reactions to loud noises, once they occur.
Are there other conditions that make sounds uncomfortable?
Phonophobia differs from other conditions that have discomfort to sound as a symptom. These include:
- Hyperacusis. This condition is not a phobia. Rather, it is a hearing disorder that causes sounds to feel louder than they actually are. Hyperacusis has a number of causes, including brain injury, Lyme disease, and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
- Misophonia. This condition is emotional in nature, but is not a phobia. People with misophonia have intense, emotional reactions, such as hatred or panic, to a specific sound, such as a dripping faucet or a person snoring. The sound does not have to be loud to produce this effect.
Are symptoms different in children?
Phobias of all types can occur in children, as well as in adults. If your child has a severe reaction to loud noise, seeing an audiologist can help you determine if they have phonophobia or an auditory condition such as hyperacusis.
The symptoms of both of these conditions may appear similar in children. Your child may become very distressed by sounds that do not seem overly loud to you. They may cover their ears, become afraid, or try to get away from the sound.
Is a fear of loud noises related to autism?
People with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) may sometimes have a fear of loud noises. This reaction can be caused by several underlying factors, including heightened anxiety, sensory sensitivity, or both.
Kids and adults with ASD may experience fear in anticipation of a loud noise that they associate with an unpleasant event.
Those with sensory issues may have hypersensitivity to sound, which causes them to hear things much louder than they actually are. Children with ASD have been known to compare the sound of raindrops to bullets.
In addition, there is some evidence that phobias of all types are common among those on the spectrum.
What causes a fear of loud noises?
Phonophobia is a mental health condition that can manifest at any age. Like all specific phobias, its exact cause is not completely understood.
It may be caused by genetic factors. People with a family history that includes anxiety disorders may be more prone to this condition.
Phonophobia may also be caused by external factors, such as a history of long-term childhood trauma, or, a single traumatic incident. In autistic children and in some other children, the traumatic event may seem extreme, but is not actually so. For example, suddenly hearing everyone loudly yell surprise at a birthday party.
How is fear of loud noises diagnosed?
If your fear of loud noises is interfering with your ability to function or enjoy life, a doctor, such as a therapist, will be able to help you.
Your doctor will diagnose your condition by asking you questions about your symptoms and triggers. Your medical, social, and psychological history will be discussed.
In order to determine if what you have is a specific phobia, your doctor will use the diagnostic criteria established in the new edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5).
Finding help for fear of loud noises
You can find a licensed professional, such as a psychologist or psychiatrist, through these organizations and associations:
- American Psychiatric Association
- Anxiety and Depression Association of America
- Association for Behavioral and Cognitive Therapies
How is fear of loud noises treated?
There are several types of therapy that are used to treat phobias. Fear of loud noise may be treated through:
- Exposure therapy (systematic desensitization). This is a type of psychotherapy (talk therapy). It uses guided and repeated exposure to the source of your fear. Exposure therapy can be done on an individual basis, or in groups. It can be very effective for the treatment of all types of specific phobias.
- Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT). This is a type of psychotherapy that’s also highly effective for the treatment of specific phobia. It uses some elements of exposure therapy, combined with techniques that help you alter negative thoughts and behaviors.
- Relaxation techniques. Activities such as meditation can also help, especially when combined with other treatments.
Therapy with a mental health professional is usually all it takes to help people with phonophobia. Sometimes medications may be prescribed in conjunction with (or instead of) psychotherapy. These include anti-anxiety medications and beta blockers that help reduce the symptoms caused by panic attacks.
What’s the outlook for people with a fear of loud noises?
If you recognize that you have phonophobia, you have already taken the first step towards conquering it. Phonophobia is a highly treatable condition. It will take work on your part to get past your fear, but positive and powerful results may not take as long to achieve as you may think.
Exposure therapy and CBT can help you experience significant reductions in phobic reactions within 2 to 5 months.
The bottom line
Phonophobia (fear of loud noise) is a highly treatable, specific phobia. This condition can occur in childhood or in adulthood. Therapeutic treatments can be very effective for eliminating or reducing phonophobic reactions. They include exposure therapy and cognitive behavioral therapy.
In some instances, medication can also help alleviate the anxiety caused by this condition.
