Stress Center Peer Support

does anyone notice that noices or louder voices seem so much more jolting when they have anxiety

Absolutely, no doubt about it.

Yes, I sure do. I think it's because you are so much more nervous now than when you weren't having anxiety. You are more aware of everything than before, probably too aware. When you start calming down, the nerves will get better and you won't notice so many of those things you shut out before. Hope this helps. Josie

You bet! Just the sound of someone accidentally dropping a fork or knife onto their plate can cause me to nearly jump out of my skin. I can hardly stand to be around people who talk loudly, and to be close to a boom box or someone blasting their car radio is torture.

exactly but does it almost feel like a shock!

Absolutely. I'll tell you something humorous. I recently took a job at Best Buy and I work in the audio section. We have all kinds of equipment to test and we even have these solid wooden rooms for amps, speakers, subwoofers, etc. Part of my job involves taking customers into these rooms and testing audio equipment and people like their music LOUD. There have been so many times I thought I was going to run out of those rooms in a panic, because I couldn't handle the loud noise. Hasn't happened yet! *knocks on wood* When I started, I truly didn't know what I was going to do, I thought for sure I'd have to quit. The thing is though, the more and more I work with these loud noises, the more used to it I get. I think I've sort of desensitized myself from loud noises. A few nights ago, several employees and I were in one of the studios (the wooden rooms) and one of them put in the Eagles and played the live version of Seven Bridges Road. They played it so loud, I could feel the treble and bass in my heart. As the song went on, and I looked around at all of my new friends, and I listened to this amazing song playing, I realized that we have the power to turn any situation around. Here I was, surrounded by new friends, at this awesome job, and great music, and the first thing that crossed my mind was "Oh the music is going to be too loud." It's a shame how we do that to ourselves, but I turned it around. Try to make light of your negative situations, usually they are wonderful experiences in disguise!