dealing with noise

Sitting on the patch of lawn outside our holiday appartment, I have the same old problem I have to deal with on a regular basis: when to object to noise and when not to.

It took me quite some time to realize that I might have more problems with noise than other people. I just thought that only those who made the noise did not have any problems with it. But it seems - I can't speak from personal experience - that there are people who, as they say, 'don't hear it'. Like a neighbour of mine. When yet another guy in close proximity decides to hammer away at his house for whatever reason, this neighbour says he doesn't even hear it. While I have great trouble concentrating on anything as long as noise continues. And it doesn't have to be a pneumatic drill either. A high pressure cleaner, a weed wacker or - God forbid - a leaf blower. They should hang whoever thought of that one. The main thing it seems to have been designed for, is making a hell of a racket.

So I have problems with noise. Like now, sitting on this patch of grass on my holiday destination. Someone has a radio on. The sound is muffled, I can just make out when there's talking on and when music. But either disturb me. It doesn't belong here. I have problems enough as it is with the traffic noise of cars in the distance.

Not fun, when you're this susceptible to sounds. Is it purely psychological, in the sense that I could get over it if I only tried not to hear it, as my neighbour seems able to? Or is it some kind of physical abnormality that makes me so acutely aware of sounds?

I can really appreciate the rare moments of relative quiet, when machines turn off, traffic is out of reach, radio's or tv's are off and people silent. No kids, no dogs, just a slight breeze through the leaves or a calm sea in the distance.

Besides worrying about how to handle an overload of sound, I ask myself when it is okay for me to complain about it. When kids scream in the street, can I go to the parents and say: look, this is no way for you kids to behave? When someone starts his motorbike ten minutes in advance of his departure, or comes screaming into the street with it at the end of his ride, can I tap him on the shoulder and say: be a pal and act normal? Or is noise a given in our society? Something you can't really object to, unless maybe it is in the middle of the night.

Our municipal authority has recently upped the level of noise permitted in our town. I don't get that. They make the biggest noise about dog doo, which is absolutely silent, but no atttention at all for public screaming, remarkable ease for noise increase, and almost every month at least one extremely loud musical event near the town centre, which can be heard indoors half the town away.

Am I really that different from other people? How can you ignore noise?

After talking to psychologists, I understand that with autism often comes an increased sensitivity to noise. Does this mean I can't object to noise because it's me, not the noise that's the problem? Or does this mean I have a valid excuse to complain, just as people who are afraid of dogs complain about dogs walking without a leash. The dogs aren't the problem, those people are and their (unjust) fears.

I would really like to know.

Or don't I? Because now I still have an excuse not to complain by telling myself that I probably shouldn't. Once I have an excuse to complain, I'll have the feeling to have to do that too. And that might be almost as difficult as trying to deal with the noise itself.

Quite a dilemma.