Overreaction to sound

Bloe Joggs

This has been on my mind for some time but for as long as I can remember, my dad overreacts to certain noises. If for example he hears what would normally be considered a quite innocuous sound like a someone shouting on the street, he bolts out of his chair and rushes outside, expecting the worst. Even a mild thud of the type you hear coming from a plumbing installation and he's running upstairs to check for burglars. A lot of times I don't even register the original sound as it didn't really grab my attention (I had my hearing checked recently during an industrial medical and it's fine) but he goes something like "did you hear that?"...or..."What was that?".. running around the house or out to the street looking up and down, when it was probably just a van reversing or someone kicking a football against a wall.

He insists that he just has really sensitive hearing but for me it's not what he hears but his reaction to it that I find quite odd. Is this more common than I might think and is there any sort of name for it?

DalaiAlma

There is a neurological condition called misophonia that causes sufferers to experience distress at hearing particular sounds. You can find out more on Wikipedia, and there was an article on it in the Guardian recently that's worth a read (I can't post in link but you'll find it if you Google "Guardian" and "I have a phobia of sound").

Rachiee

Did he suffer a trauma at some point that had led to increased anxiety. I know in my job we deal with a fair amount of violence and anytime we have a traumatic incident where someone is injured the staff are hypervigilent/jumpy for a week or so afterwards. One really bad incident particularly traumatised me and for about 5 days afyerwards anytime i heard an unexpected noise i would feel fear, but it subsided as i dealt with the trauma however i noticed a colleague of mine who was there at the time was still hypervigilent and anxious 4 months later so i wonder if you never deal with it could it last a lifetime?

JuliusCaesar

Careful, everyone. We cannot diagnose on the internet. See the forum charter. JC