Perhaps this is all because I didn't get enough sleep last night, but... I kinda doubt that.
See, I have this problem that is definately just a small problem, but it grows whenever I try to do something about it.
People annoy me. I'm 'hypersensitive.' Whatever. All I know is that in certain situations people doing everyday things can really wreck havok on my senses, and that type of sensory interference is really hard to deal with and subsequently quite annoying for me.
EXAMPLE: Sitting in lecture. The person sitting by me is enjoying a candy. This isn't really anything bad on the part of the person at all, and I realize it. However, this is right next to me -- or worse -- right behind me so I can hear it really well. In fact, I can hear it just as well, if not better than I can hear the lecturer. When this happens I like to think of it as an aural illusion or perhaps just a trick of the mind. Much like the eye trick that features two faces about to kiss each other. Or is that a vase?
See, that is my problem. I vacilate between hearing lip smacking, sugar enjoyment and the monotony of a lecture. Actually, you can replace the sounds of sugar love with anything else too, such as a tapping boot or pen, a constant cough, or even a conversation... especially a conversation.
Now, some people will still be failing to understand me at this point. "What's the problem?" They'll ask? "Just get over it." They may suggest. I wish it was that easy. I wish I could do just that because then I wouldn't have the next problem, which is the effort to remove myself from the situation or to get the situation to stop.
When you couple ease of distractibility, lack of tact, and an overdose of the desire to not hurt people you get a pretty frustrating situation. You also get me.
These three things combine to blend up a pretty troublesome situation when you add in a person who is just an acquaintance, but someone that you like well enough, wouldn't want to offend, and kind of should befriend.
Now the options that I have dreamed up are all fairly poor. My main objectives are to be able to concentrate on the lecture without interruption and not hurt anyone's feelings.
My first thoughts on solutions for this are --
Get over it. (I tried this. It hardly ever seems to work for me, unfortunately.)
Try to pull some tact out without being overly explainy and let the person know what is going on.
Hmmm... time to go to my next class.
Posted by David at February 11, 2004 12:42 PMI think you're right. This is a problem. And after almost four years, I've realized it's not just a small one. I definitely used to chalk this all up to you being fussy or "hypersensitive", but I've now abandoned that theory and picked up yours. You are "hypersensitive", but not in a way that you can help. It seems that your senses really do have a much lower threshold than normal. Soo, I would say solve the problem by getting over it, but that's not feasible here. Then I'd suggest tact... but again, not an option. People who do not understand your situation will ironically see you as being the rude one. Not understanding your needs, they would come to the conclusion that you just decided to put your preference for no candy-sucking noise before their preference for enjoying the candy. That would seem rude. Although certainly just a situational solution, I would have recommended moving away from the person as the best solution at the moment and perhaps - if you did know them as an acquaintance, better acquainting them with your "hypersensitive" needs at a later time.
Posted by: Joy at February 11, 2004 01:13 PM