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One of my sensory issues is that I have difficulty processing multiple streams of audio at once. My sense is that this is common among autistic people - but does anyone have a name for it, or a specific diagnosis? Just "audio processing disorder" or something? Which pops up tons of resources on kids, nothing on adults...

I'm looking both for better self-understanding and some information to help me advocate for a quieter environment in my office.

#ActuallyAutistic @actuallyautistic

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Izabela, Soon Again A Runner
Izabela, Soon Again A Runner
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I know what you're talking about but don't have a name for it. I just think of it as auditory overwhelm, too much info and it becomes hard for me to focus on anything.

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Michael 🏴‍☠️ Fleet
Michael 🏴‍☠️ Fleet
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Same. A sort of audio information overload. And when it happens, I cannot process any of the audio.

This + SDAM = I truly hate meetings, and find them to be tediously useless for me.

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Michael 🏴‍☠️ Fleet
Michael 🏴‍☠️ Fleet
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SDAM: sdamstudy.weebly.com/what-is-s…

What is SDAM ?

Severely Deficient Autobiographical Memory (SDAM) refers to a lifelong inability to vividly recollect or re-experience personal past events from a first-person perspective. Our research on this topic...
Severely Deficient Autobiographical Memory (SDAM)

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Amy Toebeans
Amy Toebeans
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I think audiologists say audio processing disorders. I recently saw one about it. apparently modern hearing aids can filter/equalize/compensate and help with processing issues. I have some on order and am excited they might help. I also ordered molded earplugs bc that's enough hearing loss tyvm

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Hasty Unicorn
Hasty Unicorn
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Oh, interesting, I didn't know hearing aids could help with that! Hm, maybe I should try and get a referral.

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:ACNH_Joy: June :autism:
:ACNH_Joy: June :autism:
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this was included in my diagnosis as "auditory processing disorder." My hearing is excellent, but if there are too many sounds at once, they meld into unintelligible noise. I have a hard time distinguishing speech, too, which sometimes doesn't even sound like words. In an environment with a lot of sounds, everything sounds the same volume to me (even if I know it isn't).

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Izabela, Soon Again A Runner
Izabela, Soon Again A Runner
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the other big thing, at least in my experience, is that if I am in a noisy environment, is that it takes a lot more work for me to focus in on something like a person talking to me. Which tires me out, so even if I'm enjoying a conversation with someone in such an environment, that extra work is hard.

And it also increases exponentially if the conversation involves more people because of the need to jump focus from person to person and things get ugh

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:ACNH_Joy: June :autism:
:ACNH_Joy: June :autism:
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yes! Exactly this. I've started telling people I'm hard of hearing, simply bc it's easier to explain and they tend to more readily accommodate and be more patient

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Dr.Nick
Dr.Nick
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I have told people that my Loop Earplugs are hearing aides.

Which they are, as they aid my hearing.

Listening to too many things at once, with no filtering ability, has caused me multiple shutdowns and meltdowns. I'll do anything to help address the issue.

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:ACNH_Joy: June :autism:
:ACNH_Joy: June :autism:
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I love mine! I wore mine to dinner out recently and they literally made the difference between being able to enjoy a meal and having to just go home.

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Dr.Nick
Dr.Nick
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I have a 15% off referral code if you want some more.

I have 3x Quiets, 2x Experience, and 1x Engage.

The Engages are shite. Quiets and Exp are both great

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:ACNH_Joy: June :autism:
:ACNH_Joy: June :autism:
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I have one of each, and I actually like the Engage best, because they seem to reduce how loudly I hear my own voice. But they're all good ime!

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Dr.Nick
Dr.Nick
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did you not find the engages to really muddy speech?

I got an RMA / second pair and they were exactly the same.

The exp are my favorites. I sleep with the quiets in, and they really help

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:ACNH_Joy: June :autism:
:ACNH_Joy: June :autism:
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they don't for me, actually! I got the Quiets to sleep in, too, but they're actually *too* effective; I couldn't hear my baby wake in the night or my sleep sounds app, so I stopped using them 😅

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Hasty Unicorn
Hasty Unicorn
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Hard of hearing would work in some contexts, but my main one I'm trying to solve now is a meeting with people whispering in the background, and the whispering is *hurting my brain*.
This entry was edited (1 year ago)

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Woozle Hypertwin
Woozle Hypertwin
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I've always described it as having trouble "parsing" -- detecting phonemes accurately, figuring out which ones go together in a word, assembling a set of words from those best-guesses, and then often having to guess what was intended by those words based on various applicable contexts.

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Shiri Bailem
Shiri Bailem
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@Hasty Unicorn You pretty much gave the name for it, Central Audio Processing Disorder (CAPD). It's a subset of Sensory Processing Disorder (SPD) both of which are *very* common among autistic people.

SPD is the reason we have hypo and hyper sensitivities. This being where we have certain things we're over-reactive to (harsh lights, "bad" textures, sounds causing meltdowns, etc) and others we're under-reactive to.

CAPD is specifically a difference in the audio processing center of our brains where it's not as good at translating sounds into information. Often we're hearing foreground and background noise at the same priority, jumbling the two; or sometimes we're talking to someone and a sequence of sounds in the words they say just can't be converted to language for seemingly no reason at all (processing fails on the specific set of sounds, changing enunciation suddenly makes it crystal clear but volume/speed does not)

@Hasty Unicorn
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LemLems
LemLems
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Is that the reason why, despite having very good hearing, I’m almost completely incapable of placing the direction/distance a sound is coming from?
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PaulNickson 🕊️
PaulNickson 🕊️
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Not sure but there are people who exhibit what is known as ‘stereo deafness’ meaning their brain cannot process the ‘time of arrival’ difference (delay) of sounds reaching each ear.
in reply to Hasty Unicorn

CC
CC
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I was diagnosed with Auditory Processing Disorder specifically because of what you're describing, and later diagnosed as Autistic and ADHD.

This is all in the U.S., so maybe there are other names for it in different countries, but that might be helpful anyway. Low Gain Hearing Aids is a common treatment for APD, hopefully some of this information is helpful to you and/or others!

in reply to CC

CC
CC
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to add to this, my hearing aids have helped tremendously with the sense of auditory overwhelm from it that you're describing, but certainly there are other accommodations that will be helpful

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GTMLosAngeles
GTMLosAngeles
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I can hear and remember the sound of many voices at once, but I cannot extract any meaning from those sounds. I cannot read while there is talking (or tv) around me. I suppose this could diagnosed as a disorder. But that’s not how I feel about it. I can hear and remember beautiful music, distinguishing the instruments all playing together. I’m not sure I would have that full experience with music if my brain were wired to find meaning in multiple simultaneous audio streams.

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Zumbador
Zumbador
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There are sub categories to auditory processing disorder, but the various resources list different ones.

For example
gemmlearning.com/can-help/cent…

vocovision.com/resources/paren…

Auditory hypersensitivity — poor tolerance for background sounds.

Phonetic decoding — an inability to process language at natural language speed.

Auditory integration — slowness integrating things heard with things seen.

Prosodic — processing inefficiency that makes it hard to think while listening.

Organizational deficit – not recording information in specific order.

Types of Auditory Processing Disorder - Gemm Learning

There are 4 types of auditory processing disorder, the largest category being tolerance fading memory. CAPD symptoms and sub type descriptions here.
Gemm Learning
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Bill Taroli :neurodiversity:
Bill Taroli :neurodiversity:
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OMG YES THIS! Two is really hard. But get three or four going and it all blurs together, for me, like a shrieking cacophony so loud I can’t even hear myself screaming. I feel I should carry an air horn to use like a water pistol when people “train” cats.

What I do at work is use headphones to drown ambient noise. When in zoom on headphones I drop volume or remove one or both ear cups from my ears. 🤷🏻‍♂️

#ActuallyAutistic #AuDHD #SensoryOverload @actuallyautistic

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William Canna-bass
William Canna-bass
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This exactly.
I remember having a meeting at one of my jobs where we were in this giant echoing Hall with lots of machine noises, and I had to face my ear towards the speaker because I could not process what he was saying without doing so.

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