Do Noise and Crowds Affect You?

[ElliotB]

Although I am doing better than I used to just a few years ago, noise and crowds still affect me a lot (both make me feel very uncomfortable but I can better tolerate them a bit better now if I have to but still go out of my way to avoid noise and crowds). I also feel uncomfortable talking with multiple people at the same time and have difficulty listening to complicated music and watching television and movies unless I am familiar to what I am listening to or watching. I was unaware of these situations being a MS symptom as I had never heard of anyone other than me experiencing this phenomenon until I read this article today:

Do Noise and Crowds Affect You More with MS?

https://multiplesclerosisnewstoday.com/ ... fect-more/

I now know I am not alone with this odd symptom...


Are you affected by noise and crowds?

[David1949]

Loud noises don't bother me too much unless it's ear-piercing load. I don't like walking in crowds because my balance is really bad and I am afraid of being knocked over.

For the record I have PPMS. Its been 22 years since the Dx. My self assessed EDSS score is 6.5.
I don't take any of the DMDs, but I do take Baclofen for muscle spasms.

[Scott1]

Many,many years ago, before I was first diagnosed I used to wonder about crowds.

My problem was I felt unbalanced when walking towards large numbers of people. They sometimes seemed to shake in front of me. If it was a crowded footpath and I was walking into the crowd I felt as though I couldn't predict which way they would move next and it was quite unsettling. I thought I must have some weird mental problem with large numbers of people. What was really happening is my eyes were moving at different rates so my brain struggled to keep up with conflict from differing eyeball speeds. When I had steroids after I was diagnosed the problem went away.

Although I don't have any hearing issues, some partially deaf people can't comfortably separate background noise from foreground sounds. I've noticed they struggle from the clatter if someone drops a plate in a restaurant because it seems to sound inordinately loud. That, of course is not an MS problem but it is really difficult so they avoid crowds.

Have you been checked for hearing problems as a separate issue? It might also be worth checking if your eyeballs do move at the same rate.

If the problem is not really obvious, those subtle issues can make you feel very uncomfortable .

Regards,

[ElliotB]

Yes, I have had my hearing checked. No issues there. Although I do have some minor balance issues, that is not the problem for me. The feeling I have from noise and crowds is one of being uncomfortable/out of place/anxious. It is an odd symptom but ultimately easy to deal with but unfortunately prevents me from socializing much. I have found ways to cope...

[Zyklon]

After I have started antidepressant Citalopram, my noise tolerance is much much better. During my first attack, noise in my house made me very unconformable.