I've been developing a fear of noises... Makes me feel unsafe in a home environment.

I think it's just kinda calming to post this right now, so this is kind of a vent, but if anyone reads and relates, that'd be interesting to hear about... Noises are really getting to me tonight...

Ever since I started living with my grandmother in the suburbs to attend tertiary schooling ~2 years ago, I've gradually developed fears I didn't consider I'd ever have... I'm a country girl who's had health anxiety since I was about 8, but within my time in the suburbs, I've also developed almost crippling fears of people breaking into the house while I'm sleeping. Sometimes it's worse than others, but it's one of the reasons I generally stay up until 4/5am every night.

Along with this fear I'm become deathly terrified of the slightest noises that I hear within the house - noises which are usually common ones that I should be used to (the ceiling fan causing my blinds to clack together happens constantly, but still scares the living daylight out of me), the cat, or just the house settling/kitchen appliances. I wear headphones all the time and keep the volumes of my streams/videos quite loud to try and distract me from this, but as soon as something breaks through that barrier, I stiffen, pull my headphones off, listen intently for minutes, and literally prepare myself for an attacker.

I'm also now absolutely terrified of hearing PLANES outside. I think that sort of started around when N.Korea and the USA had all that nuclear discussion a good while back... 'Cause now everytime I hear a plane or helicopter in the sky, I assume the absolute worst is happening and have a mental breakdown for a while until it passes and I can assure myself the 'danger' has passed...

It's so awful. I feel unsafe when I go out anywhere just 'cause I'm constantly afraid of something bad happening... but being afraid even of where I live ('cause of common noises, no less) is horrifying, really. Definitely worse when I'm here alone.

I don't fear intruders necessarily but noise certainly has an affect on me and my anxiety/phobia.

For me it started with planes taking off from the airport. The bigger engine ones would wake me up and that was it, I could never get back to sleep again. Same idea, I think it was when I started to think about bombs and meteors etc. Night-time was the worst, but most mornings I felt OK again.
But then you start to get anxious about being anxious and then place association, so I started to sleep on the couch downstairs some nights. I used to leave the tv on for background noise and to keep my mind occupied but then sometimes something disturbing would be on so I'd have to change channel. I then started to just put comedy DVDs on and watch episodes over and over till I finally fell asleep, usually early morning.

I've been living with this for about 25 years now and sadly it has only gotten worse. These days I wake my partner up and hope that he can calm me or I get up because lying in bed awake is the just the worst.

Anxiety is a word which is batted about so much these days but the worst thing is to ignore it and think it will go away. For some lucky people it does, and I've had periods where it was less of a problem. There is usually a point when you will know that it's something you want to address - usually when its making work/study difficult. Obviously think about who you want to talk about it to, those who haven't experienced fears/phobias etc will probably just tell you to give yourself a good shake and get on with things which is never particularly helpful :mad:

I can't say I have ever met a GP who has understood where I'm coming from either. I was 19 when I was first prescribed anti-depressants when I went to discuss my insomnia and fear. To this day I still don't know if this is the correct approach because it has never helped me.

Hey, thanks for the reply anxdeporwhat!

It's interesting to hear someone else talk about this kind of fear too.

I tell ya, that 'falling satellite' business that the news kept going on about this Easter weekend was causing me insane anxiety, and sounds especially were putting me on-edge. Glad that's over though, hahaha.

I can relate to the sleeping-elsewhere thing, though. When I'm the only one in the house, I take more solace sleeping on the couch with animated movies playing on the TV and streams on my laptop just to relax and try to sleep. Being out there instead of cooped up in my room makes me feel more aware, and slightly safer, I think.

I've been seeing a therapist about my health anxiety, so I'll try and mention my noise paranoia to see if she has any coping methods or something. Not that I'm any good at following those, ahah.

Hey, do not take medicines they have side effects, you really need hypnotherapist to treat of fear, one of my friends was also suffering from the same fear as you are in. after having some hypnosis sessions he feels better now he is almost fine....I am sure hypnotherapy will surely work on you

[QUOTE=anxdeporwhat;1780637]
But then you start to get anxious about being anxious and then place association.

Funny you should say that about anxiety, place association and sounds in particular.

I have Asperger's Syndrome (though not to a serious degree) and I remember back in the early 90s (mid 1990-early 1991) when I was about 13 I used to have to attend a respite unit (run by the Social Services Department of our local county council) in a neighbouring town for a weekend on a once-monthly basis and that was quite a traumatic experience for me, as most of the other children who were clients there were far less able than me, and they used to randomly mix persons between the ages of 1 and 18 together at the same time (maximum of about 8 persons staying there at any one time) in which I felt incongruous amongst a load of toddlers staying there at the same time, who often used to scream incessantly, certain 'bad apple' staff members who seemed to be perpetually irate and also used to smoke in the office with the door wedged wide open and the stench from their cigarette smoke wafting around the building and when I complained about it they said I was out of order and they had every right to smoke inside the building, even though the dangers of passive smoking were already becoming quite well-known by then.

Worst of all for me at that particular respite unit were odd noises omitted by the plumbing/machinery in close proximity to the building's central heating boiler, whose plant room adjoined the accessible toilet on the ground floor but accessed from outside the building and at periodical intervals throughout the day a horrible water hammer-type noise used to emerge from that particular spot in the building (resembling the hammer action sound of an electric drill when drilling into solid walls, etc) and said sound was heard in the ground floor corridor in the spot where the boiler was on the wall behind it, in the accessible toilet next door to the boiler plant room, and in the spot in the first floor corridor immediately above the boiler plant room where the sound used to resonate through the pipework under the floorboards in that particular spot, though fortunately that noise couldn't be heard in any of the bedrooms, even those in closest proximity to the source of the noise (with the door closed), so was spared the torment of being kept awake by it.

Nevertheless, I was completely freaked out and disturbed by that noise (despite it being physically harmless), even for several months after leaving said respite unit and moving to another respite unit closer to home that had subsequently opened up and was better suitable to my particular needs and was for intended for people from about the age of 14-15 upwards, and developed severe vomiting-related anxiety from around August 1991 (though to-date, touch wood, the last time I actually vomited was in August 1988) which was probably triggered by hearing a song one evening that month with sounds that reminded me of plumbing noises and having just necked a can of Irn-Bru prior to playing the album with that particular song on, and that particular anxiety came to a head in March 1994 from when I was prescribed the (now-derided) medication Stelazine, that I discontinued from early 2007, and now take Sertraline (and occasionally Lorazepam) instead.