1 yr. ago • 87%

Noise issues, overload and... breakcore?

Okay, so this is weird.

I seriously don't do loud environments. My speech discrimination goes to shit with a bunch of background noise, and if I get into overly-spiky crowd noise (eg. loud bars / parties, with everyone yelling over each other and echoing off the walls), I rapidly overload and need to GTFO before I break down.

So why in the purple fuck is frantic glitchy breakcore the most soothing thing in the universe?

I've been listening to stuff like femtanyl recently, and the more IYTGKIUFUYGLICGXJYUGJTYUFLIHFUYGKJKHJGHYTFTJGHFDYGFDJHCHTRF it gets, the more it feels like my brain is sinking into a warm bath. It's like brown noise, but moreso.

Tha heck is going on?

Anyone relate?

30 comments

I'm also autistic and always attributed this issue to that rather than ad(h)d, but I did think about this and did notice a pattern. There's 2 things that seem to control whether loud music is acceptable for me or whether it overloads my brain:. It eitther needs to be the single source of sound (i.e. festivals, concerts) or it needs to be fully in my control. Preferably both. I can't handle music playing and people talking over it, because they're two sources of sound that I can't effectively filter. When I'm at a show specifically for the music, I hear nothing but the music and it's usually also music that I enjoy. When I have control over the music, it seems to make it easier as well. When I get overloaded I can instantly stop it, which stops the panic situation when my brain starts overloiding and there's not easy escape from the noise.

Edit: and I also listen to pretty fast/noisy music. I assume it's because my mind gets distracted and starts wandering when there isn't enough going on.

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- These are both very good points that I hadn't considered, and seem to make a lot of sense.
  
  Huh.
  
  1
The BPM on that femtanyl track is pretty high, high bpm music can help us ADHD patients. I find it soothing.

10
- Me too, fast music really help me get into focus without needing a lot of effort
  
  3
  
  Yeah, it's a proper thing. Supported by science and all that jazz. I love it. I've got tattoos to show my love for music (people always see em and ask "what instrument do you play?" They are always hella confused when I reply with "none"), it was nice finding out years after as to just why music is so important for me. It literally regulates my brain if I pick the right stuff.
  
  2
- I'm a neurotypical musican and this has got to be the most interesting thing I've heard all day. Out of curiosity, if the BPM and pace of the track is still high but the song has really soothing instruments (soft trumpets, harp, kalimba type stuff) or really harsh instruments (distorted guitars mixed with chainsaws), would the music still be soothing? I'm curious if their is a relation between the sound and calmness aswell as speed
  
  2
  
  In short, yes. Hot Chip has some pretty high tempo stuff that I'd still call smooth. As for harsh noises, NIN soothes the fuck out of me when I'm all wound up.
  
  It's not a magic bullet though, some stuff can irritate the fuck out of me at times when usually I love it. shrugs mental illness is complex at times!
  
  2
The music is music. The noise is noise.

The music you linked actually kinda reminds me of video game music. Like it could have been a background track in Silent Hill or something. I like it.

8
- Gave me jsrf vibes here and there
  
  3
can relate..love breakcore, dischordant tech death, noise etc. its chaotic but i can control it.

4
Beats me dude. That fentanyl you shared just stressed me out. Too much going on. By all means, you keep doing you! I'm just too old for that stuff!

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I'm curious how extreme metal would treat you, scientifically speaking

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(this is all from an outsider, so grain of salt)

is something like Coffitivity as much of a stressor?

in the same vein, does Adriano Celentano’s faux English Prisencolinensinainciusol cause as many problems?

how are you with true noise – white noise, pink noise, brown noise?

my guess, with breakcore and the like, you know there’s a level of coherency and your subconscious can hear it whereas with crowd noise, not only are you fighting the volume levels, but your subconscious is expecting a level of coherency (triggered by snippets intelligible words, phrases, phonemes) that doesn’t exist and it is exhausting itself trying to “make it make sense” – your mind is attempting to piece unmatched jigsaw puzzle pieces together at very high speed
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- How fascinating! I've never come across the coffitivity thing before - I surprisingly don't hate it, though it does slow my reading speed down a fair bit. I honestly don't know yet if I like it or not. It probably wouldn't help my speech discrimination any, but it doesn't seem to overload me.
  
  Brown noise is incredibly soothing (even moreso if you throw in some rain sound on top...) - white and pink are a lot harsher, but not stressful per se.
  
  Prisencolinensinainciusol doesn't bother me any.
  
  I mainly get triggered by the henhouse noises of parties and the like - people scream-laughing out of nowhere, and waves of noise building up and crashing as people successively talk over each other until they can't any more, then reset. Not just chaos, but stabby chaos.
  
  I guess having an undercurrent of structure under the chaotic music (and not having the dynamics of someone sharpening a knife on a broken plate) helps, though I'm not sure that's a sufficient explanation.
  
  I suspect also that the problem tends to lie in too many pieces you can put together, making it too hard to tune out, and so ending up with too many balls to juggle at once.
  
  Hmm.
  
  4
  
  Do you have a degree of social anxiety? Over the years I've noticed that multiple sources of sensory input get overwhelming when I'm stressed. If I feel in control and "calm" I can just mentally filter it all as a single background noise but if my anxiety is real bad or I'm upset about something else I feel like I'm being assaulted from all sides.
  
  If I'm at a bar with friends I'm comfortable with and we're relaxed and chatting then I'm fine. The music and myriad of conversations all just become a single background noise. Drinking probably helps.
  
  If I'm struggling to accomplish some task and it's really getting to me, any noise from multiple sources puts me on edge and I'll do pretty much anything to stop it.
  
  And if it's not an anxiety thing for you, it might just be that it's from multiple sources. Sensory overload isn't usually a physical thing, it's how our brain interprets it, which means our state of mind or even our perception matters. The music you listen to you know is coming from one place: your headphones/speakers. You know it's meant to work together so your brain can file that away as a single thing to comprehend. A noisy party with 20 different conversation that you know are all separate? Your brain is trying to view them all separately and ADHD can make you want to interpret all of them.
  
  I think that last bit is most likely and could just be the basic of what your brain is doing. But for me personally, stress triggers my brains inability to filter all background noise as a single "noise" because it's on high alert fight-or-flight mode and on the lookout for dangers so it's taking everything in that it can to locate the danger.
  
  I think something like that coffitivity thing could help you acclimatize you to it if you're looking to change your reaction. Train your brain to view that kind of noise as a singular source and not 100 different sources. And with the internet being what it is, there's almost definitely something out there that will imitate whatever environment you're wanting to adjust to.
  
  1
  
  Maybe try listening to some "discordant" music and see how you respond? This https://youtu.be/RPUXsqshayk song is particularly jerky at times but still follows a recognizable structure. It might make an interesting boundary test.
  
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- Here is an alternative Piped link(s):
  
  Prisencolinensinainciusol
  
  brown noise
  
  Piped is a privacy-respecting open-source alternative frontend to YouTube.
  
  I'm open-source; check me out at GitHub.
  
  1
I can absolutely relate, during my day job I have my speakers running full blast and I am dancing away at my standing desk while in deep focus.

I think part of it is almost sound-defensive where the loud predictable music insulates me from focusing in on small sounds or unpredictability sounds. The techno is on and it's unimportant so I can focus on my work and drown out distractions.

I also think the pace is important for me, it's almost like my brain is racing to keep up with the beat and thus can't afford the distraction of focusing on something else. It can be almost meditative and make the whole world slower and more focused.

2
Here is an alternative Piped link(s):

femtanyl

Piped is a privacy-respecting open-source alternative frontend to YouTube.

I'm open-source; check me out at GitHub.

1
Idk if I could relax to it, but it helps me focus on certain tasks, like making a magic the gathering deck or painting something. It doesn't seem to help at all when I'm doing stuff on a computer though, just when I'm doing stuff with my hands

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I've noticed something similar with music.

This is one that does it for me: https://youtu.be/4edAZvbU5gw

The only thing I could come to, is that it's like it is noise, but not random and unpredictable. It's like organized or controlled noise,if that makes any kind of sense.

Another example of the "noise" : https://youtu.be/forwNINpoVE

1
- Here is an alternative Piped link(s):
  
  https://piped.video/4edAZvbU5gw
  
  https://piped.video/forwNINpoVE
  
  Piped is a privacy-respecting open-source alternative frontend to YouTube.
  
  I'm open-source; check me out at GitHub.
  
  1
I don't know where I land on the spectrum, just know I vibe with the tribe so far. I've been listening to skate punk lately, pretty much exclusively roller skating to Pennywise. It's been really helping my anxiety lately with tourists. Pennywise - All or Nothing

1
- Here is an alternative Piped link(s):
  
  Pennywise - All or Nothing
  
  Piped is a privacy-respecting open-source alternative frontend to YouTube.
  
  I'm open-source; check me out at GitHub.
  
  1
I've just given it a listen to this and I love it. I think it works because so many stimuli are coming at your brain so fast, and they're changing to quickly. Constantlyhavint to react to new, changing stimuli is what ADHD brains crave, and I feel tike this music perfectle feeds that need.

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