“A school bell sounded like a drill going through my ears.” Many of us have wondered to ourselves, must you live so loudly? How do you cope with phonophobia (noise sensitivity?)
I attempt to cope with noise sensitivity with three strategies: avoidance, isolation and silicone earplugs. The first two are pretty self-explanatory. I avoid going to loud places like blockbuster movies or sports bars. If I’m with a noisy group of people and am able to, I isolate myself by going into another room or outside. When unable to avoid or isolate, I put the silicone plugs in my ears.
The ear plugs aren’t the best thing but they’re much better than dealing with loud noise. In fact, I just took out plugs that had been in my ears for over twelve hours. Now that my husband is retired, it can be almost comical how we’re learning to coexist. Jim grew up in a household where the television was on from morning till night. He also worked in a very noisy major airplane manufacturing plant and therefore does not hear well. The tv volume goes up and my ear plugs go in. Then if he’s trying to say something to me, I’ll have to reply “what? I’ve got earplugs in?” Whereby he’ll repeat the question loudly.
Or there’ll be instances when Jim can’t hear me when I speak in a migraine voice. Then I have to speak louder and more often than not LOUDER when he still can’t hear me! If I get frustrated (well I usually do, but I try not to show it), he’ll ask why I’m grumpy! Comedy central at the Andrea & Jim house. And the other day it so happened that I’d loosened my earplugs, and he didn’t know it. His voice was booming as he asked a question he thought I couldn’t hear. Ay carumba! We’ve got a lot to work out with this retirement thing, oh yes we do.
June 2013, Migraine and Headache Awareness Month, is dedicated to Unmasking the Mystery of Chronic Headache Disorders.
The June 2013 Migraine and Headache Awareness Month Blog Challenge is a project of http://FightingHeadacheDisorders.com
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