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> I have ADHD and I straight-up don't do silence.

> It probably started when I was much younger with much worse asthma and always had a HEPA filter running in the background. Eventually this turned into basically always having some kind of fan in my primary locations.

Same exact experience.

For tinnitus, try massaging the back of your head/neck. Tightness there can be the cause in some people.

Reddit posted a similar trick a few years ago, but in my experience, massage seems to be just as good, so if you haven't tried it, do so and you might get some relief from that.

If massage does work, consider getting a Theragun percussion massage tool. That thing has done wonders for my old age pains.

I'll second this. I keep one at my desk now.

Between switching to a standing desk and the Theragun, my hips/back/neck are in much better shape than they were a few years ago.

It could also be high cranial pressure.

Silence is horrible for me. Best is paid programming. Someone that keeps me on task.

At home best I’ve found is ear plugs with music in background.

Or I can take my medicine and the horrific pain of boredom goes away. I just get a few days of severe nerve pain throughout body.

Do you mean in ear headphones with music or actual ear plugs with music on a stereo?

I don’t know why but I feel a million times better with ear plugs in. I had these etymotic ear plugs that were more like sound filters for years before I lost them, and I loved them so much. I’d wear them with headphones over top while working for this oddly silent and muffled sound experience.

I didn’t replace the etymotics because my wife was too embarrassed to be around me having these things in. But at a restaurant or other loud places they were an absolute saviour.

I use AirPods in a similar way, but it’s not as nice. Sometimes I actually just want plain old ear plugs. Even so, the AirPods are a lot better than nothing at all. I use them with no sound perhaps more often than I do with sound.

Once I lived in the worst place noise wise. The street was transited at night, there were many dogs barking in the neighborhood, and people came in and out of the nearby rooms.

After one month, I managed to sleep by wearing something like these: http://static.grainger.com/rp/s/is/image/Grainger/2FLL3_AS01...

and over that, thick headphones playing a recording of popcorn in a microwave.

I managed to stay 4 months there.

Haha, that sounds awful. I hope you’re somewhere peaceful now.

I do find those work (and I keep a pair in my toiletry bag which I take just about everywhere), but if I leave them in for prolonged periods I find my ears start to hurt. Almost like I could be developing some kind of inner ear skin irritation.

Actual ear plugs. Dampens eveything. Eliminates most distractions. Music in background becomes more soothing.

Loop earplugs[1] are made for this. I have the “Experience” model and love them dearly. I can pop them in instantly, and they attenuate without much muffling, so I can still interact with people.

1. https://us.loopearplugs.com/collections/all

I too love having AirPods in!

Do you clean your earplugs daily? I discovered I had to after a minor ear infection. Wet wipes alone didn’t cut it. Needs wet wipes + hand sanitizer. Don’t forget the case too.

I also made the mistake of putting the AirPods on too quickly after a shower. I was like 90% dry but inpatient. That too can trigger ear infections.

Not directly related to your post but tinnitus + Airpods.

I have tinnitus. And after starting to use Airpod Pros, I feel the tinnitus has become *much* worse. And I basically don't have any music on. And if I do, at very low levers. I basically just use the transparent mode, or silence mode.

Am I the only one experience this? I'm sort of hestistant to use Airpods to not risk getting permanent worse tinnitus. At the same time, they are very practical. And the dampening of noise makes work and concentration easier.

>just get a few days of severe nerve pain throughout body.

What is this? I get the same experience and my docs haven’t given any explanation after multiple times bringing it to their attention.

Neuropathy. Lots of damage to my nerves. Makes me hyper sensitive to many medications.

Heavy vitamin regiment has reduced issues. LDN, and getting a previously undiagnosed autoimmune condition under control has given me some tolerance.

I still avoid Medication as best I can. But Family likes having a house.

Welbutrin? That sounds a lot like a common side effect of that drug.

Adderal, vyvanse, concerta. And Xarelto (blood thinner) all cause burning pain

Yup, Adderal. When I take it the two sides of my brain stop fighting each other and I'm able to be what I think is normal. But then i get nerve pain (which I've had, mildly, in general due to two surgeries when I was a kid.)

« Between restless brain and tinnitus, actual silence, or anything with a noise floor below ~15dB, just doesn't sit right with me.»

As someone with both (and particularly bad tinnitus) I look forward to my new air filters/fans.

Any slight sudden noise also tends to wake me up, last year I bought some Bose Sleepbuds 2 and they have been fantastic, they play a range of sounds such as white noise while your sleep and it really blocks out everything else.

I've used them to sleep like a baby in a tent at a music festival when all my campmates woke up tired and complaining from lack of sleep.

When working I use Endel / Brain.fm.

Ditto and a plug for https://austinair.com/ I run it in my office on low during the day and sleep with it at night. Its a sizable investment but WOW its been worth it. I'm on year 12 and its still going strong.

Many people use sound machines to drown out background noise so it doesn’t wake you up.

You can however train yourself on to a sound machine or off of one. Some people can’t fall asleep unless the tv is on or the radio or a podcast… same principle. But it really only makes sense if you environment is quiet in general.

I think it's consistent sound/noise that matters. My Dad worked on a ship and he said when he was trying to sleep the worst sounds were intermittent. He preferred a constant sound no matter what it was.

I think this is it. The change is what does it. Intermittent noise is constant change.

Loud music in the next room never stopped me from sleeping as a kid. I'd wake up when the music turned off, though.

Yeah, in other news many environments are badly engineered, badly outfitted, and their inhabitants are content to let their artificially occupied mind anguish with squealing refrigerators, air conditioners, notifications, sleep issues, illumination issues, blood sugar spikes and trenches, social uncertainty and misplaced conscientiousness, and so on without attributing their focus issues to anything more specific than "something wrong" or, in medical terms, "disordered."

When you're stigmatizing mental health, avoid writing it as a single run-on sentence that's 63 words long. The point loses its punch.

In what sense are any of those elements of distraction or the claim about vagueness "stigmatizing mental health"?

It's possible my interpretation was wrong. I took it as you saying that lots of people live in distracting environments without saying that they have a specific problem (such as ADHD). It seemed like hinting that those things problems aren't real or it's unnecessary/bad to get a diagnosis.

Are ocean waves to you calming or distracting?

is asthma correlated with ADHD ?

For me there was an unknown psychological dependency on my inhaler due to anxiety.

The paranoia of needing the inhaler due to allergies/whatever would itself trigger a panic attack.

Since my ADHD diagnosis (aged 38!) I can happily leave the house without the inhaler without fear of needing it - but only when I'm on stimulant meds.

The ADHD diagnosis has brought to light several things which I never knew would be connected.

The meds are life changing in many ways more than just help with concentration.