Hi,

I see there have been threads on this subject before, but they are all dead, so I though i would start a new one.

My neighbour's teenage son likes to play music when his parents are out. They have a high quality sound system that generates a lot of bass and is situated next to the party wall. On several occasions the music has been extremely loud, and has caused panic attacks.

I'm not sure of the root cause, i have had problems with anxiety before, but not with a trigger such as this.

The music comes on once/twice a week, as soon as I hear it i become extremely angry at the rudeness and the invasion of boundaries. I then panic as i'm not sure what i should do about it, whether the noise is even unacceptable, what the neighbours might say when i challenge them etc.

I have approached the neighbours on several occasions who have said they will turn it down, but any improvement is short lived.


It's got to the point now where bass music at barely perceptible volumes is causing a strong stress reaction. I can tell the instant the music starts, but have to mute the TV to make sure, so it's obviously not at much volume.

I become anxious any time a car drives past my house with audible music (this happens a lot it's a busy road). I become anxious when i hear footsteps next door, doors closing, voices etc. as i fear those noises will be followed by the dull thud of bass music.

This is ruining my life.

I can wear earplugs, and closed back headphones to drown out the noise, but i have a wife and baby so this is not an ideal solution.

I have started to spend some time listening the binaural beat sounds to try and condition myself to low frequency sounds and this seems to have some positive effect in that i feel calm when the sound is playing as i know i'm safe from the neighbour noise, but if i hear music from the neighbours unexpectedly, i still panic.

What other treatment options are there? I feel that if i could reframe the problem, it would go away, but i am at a loss as to how to do this.