Noise

Every now and again I hit a patch where I find myself feeling irritated by to noise.

On particularly bad days I wince when the children are playing exuberantly, and Husband is playing music, or the television is on.  Sometimes even the visual noise on the internet can be too much. All I want to do is crawl into my bedroom, shut the door, curl into a little ball and lose myself in a book.

I’m aware that sensitivity to noise is a symptom of a range of medical conditions (before you flood me with comments diagnosing me with one or another of them). In my case it’s not so much a physical sensitivity - I don’t get headaches or tinnitus, it’s more just a noise fatigue.

I’m pretty sure it’s mostly tiredness-related.  A signal that I’m overdoing things somewhere. I’m down to point 5 on the “Units of Energy” scale my pen-pal sent me:

Units of Energy

10	Top of the world, no pain, rested and ready
9	Pain can take 1-2 units, poor sleep can too.
8	Helping others can take away 1-2 units of energy.
7	You must take care of yourself or the whole day will be affected
6	You must take a “shut down” or rest break 10 – 30 min
5	When energy levels <5 everything is harder to deal with. Noises are too loud, there's too much going on around you, you're moving slower.
4	At 4 units of energy stop and take a nap.
3
2	If you get down to 2 units of energy you become wired tired (too wound up to rest properly)
1	At this point you really can't function all that well, you trip over your feet easily, have trouble talking, your memory is poor. It will take 2-3 times as long to recover at this point than it took you to get here.

I need to slow down, take things a bit more quietly, make sure I have time to look after me.  Run that hot bath and have a soak in it.  Curl up with that book. Take some iron supplements. Sip some chamomile tea.  Practise some silent, meditative prayer.  I’ll be back to my “normal” self in about a week.