Noise Sensitivty and Anxiety.
By: Ginny T. Deaza
Tags: Anxiety, Mental Health Awareness, Noise, Senses, Anxiety Mental Health

Noise Sensitivty and Anxiety.

Suffering from any form of anxiety is scary! It manifests itself in many different ways. We hear about the common manifestations of anxiety, like agoraphobia, social anxiety, driving anxiety, and even health anxiety. Your body becomes extremely sensitive and sensitized to everything and anything. A symptom of anxiety that not a lot of people speak on is noise sensitivity pertaining to anxiety and stress. I didn’t know it was a thing until it happened to me, here is my story:

When I first heard we had to be on lockdown due to the pandemic, I was secretly happy. I thought to my self “Yes! I get to watch Netflix all day or just sleep in” I was ecstatic! Little did I know what was coming my way.

Days turned into weeks and weeks turned into months. My boyfriend would go to work Monday through Friday from 3–11 pm which meant I stayed home all day by myself. Being that my boyfriend and I moved to California with no family to be able to run to didn't make things better. Yes, I could face time my family but after a while, that wasn't enough. I quickly learned that human interaction was needed for one's sanity.

I had been suffering from anxiety for years but knew how to manage it and keep it at bay. Slowly anxiety and depression started to creep back into my life again and it was devastating. I began to become agoraphobic which meant I didn't feel safe if I left my house but then again being home and not going outside was making my situation worse. Anxiety and depression had consumed me at this point and I was fully back into that dangerous state of mind that I prayed to God to help me out many times before.

One night I was awakened from my sleep by this random alarm. The alarm was one of those annoying fire alarms that would go off in buildings when someone pulled it. My boyfriend was just drifting off to sleep when I asked him “Hey do you hear that alarm going off” he replies “No” and goes right back to sleep. I instantly thought to myself “that's it! I'm officially going crazy!” “I'm losing it!” “ I'm hearing things that aren't real!” The noise stopped for a little and I began to hear it again. I began to feel my heart pounding extra hard because the thought of me losing and being institutionalized terrified me. Thoughts flooded my mind and I started to ask my self “this is such a tormenting sound, how can anyone fall asleep with a constant annoying sound going off?” This sent me into a spiral of irrational thinking because how could my boyfriend sleep through that noise? It only solidified that I was indeed hearing things that were not there.

I would hold my ear in to see if I could hear it in my head, I would get up to go to another room to see if I would hear it there and I did. I can't count the number of times I got up because I just could not sleep. I was sweating profusely. I have NEVER been this scared in my life!

Finally, I decided to get on my knees and pray to god. I asked him to help me, I even cried to him. Let me tell you, Jesus is REAL! After I prayed, I tried to go back to sleep but I simply couldn't because the alarm was still going off. I got back up walked to my living room and suddenly got the idea to record the air to see if what I was hearing was indeed real or fake. I proceeded to record the air and then the time to play it back came and I hesitated I thought to my self “Wait!” “what if I play this audio back and there is no alarm going off “ I will then have confirmed that I've indeed have gone NUTS! The feeling was too scary for me not at least test this theory, so I played the audio back and I could definitely hear that alarm in the background. I instantly felt so relieved but still didn't know if this was all in my head or not. I quickly ran back to my room and I woke my boyfriend up this time I wanted to make sure he was fully up and coherent. I said, “Hey do you hear anything in this audio?” He goes “Yes it's an alarm going off” when I tell you that I felt my soul come back into my body! I have never in my life felt that much relief ever! This whole entire time I was hearing an alarm the reason he didn't hear it was because he was half asleep and not paying attention. After the scare that i went through it started a whole new problem for me and almost developed into PTSD. I kept hearing everything super heightened and kept questioning my self on weather the sound was there or not. Things got better.

Anxiety does heighten your senses, and this is important to know if you suffer from anxiety. Not a lot of people know that when your body is under a lot of stress it could make you super sensitive to sounds. Certain sounds that you weren't aware of before become really loud, this is super normal. When you start to become less stressed out your body starts to relax and symptoms become to disappear and subside. I promise things really will get better! Im still learning and getting stronger by the day.

Whats helping me the most? Jesus! Really connecting and taking time to be still with him and learning his promises and truths, that's whats getting me out of this vicious anxiety cycle and all that it comes with. Dont ever give up hope! You are not alone! “For I know the plans i have for you, Plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future” Jeremiah 29:11. If an intrusive thought (Bad thought) comes into your mind know that it is the enemy! Rebuke him and he has to flee! Hold on to that promise God NEVER breaks his promises.