Loud music and panic attacks

[heckler72]

My anxiety and panic attacks are associated with loud music. Mainly music with a lot of bass to it. Like hip hop etc. I am having trouble getting my therapist to understand what I am feeling. Does anyone out there also have anxiety and panic attacks associated with loud music.

[NeuronerdDoaty]

Nope because I can’t listen to loud stuff of any kind. You’re anxiety has caused you to be phonophobic and that is not unusual. When I’m going to be in crowds I wear foam ear plugs. It cuts out all the background noise but I can hear what I need to. You are normal for our slightly out of normal situation. Get another therapist who understands anxiety.

Doaty

[Wishingforpeace]

Loud music can definitely trigger me. I went to a heavy metal concert earlier this year and not even halfway through, I got so overwhelmed I actually started balling and had to leave. I believe it’s from overstimulation of the senses. Anxiety already makes me a little sensitive and too much loudness makes me feel like I’m being violently shaken.

[Beevee]

A lot of the symptoms of anxiety and panic attacks are common amongst sufferers. Some are unique to individuals but the important thing to remember is that whatever the symptoms might be, the root cause is all the same. Fear. Or fearing the feelings of fear. It is only anxiety, or fearing the symptoms of anxiety which in your case is music but it really doesn’t matter.

No matter what may frighten you, the cure for anxiety and panic attacks ( think of them as surges of energy because that is all they are) is all the same and that is to lose your fear by exposing yourself to those triggers and allowing yourself to feel anxious and not do anything to change the way you think and feel.

Being frightened of loud music sounds absurd and you probably know that too, deep down, so you fight the thoughts and feelings, trying to reconcile it all with yourself.

Instead of fighting, learn to accept the thoughts and feelings. Let them be there, give them the space in your head to do whatever they want to do and lose your respect for them. It is just anxiety. Over time, those fears will fade away to nothing and you will look back and how absurd it all was for yourself.

The reason people continue to suffer is because they keep trying to fix their anxiety with an anxious mind which simply doesn’t work.

[NeuronerdDoaty in reply to Beevee]

I mostly agree with that. For some of us though fear is not the case. I have A/D from multiple TBIs. I was literally born without fear. My mother’s anxiety is because I have no fear. It was hard on her. My oldest has no fear. It’s literally like a birth defect except it’s acquired. Most head injury patients have anxiety, depression, anger, and/or impulse control issues.

[Beevee]

I agree that anxiety can be caused by trauma but acceptance will still quell the symptoms. However, most sufferers don’t have an underlying medical cause. I didn’t. It was just poorly managed stress. I then became stressed about the symptoms of stress, my nerves became sensitised and anxiety developed. I became fearful of the symptoms of fear. And when I refer to fear, it can also mean an intense dislike of something.

[Hidden]

Yes, I cannot be in a room with loud bass. It disrupts my breathing and heart rhythm, I refuse to go to concerts anymore that have loud bass the kind that vibrates through your body. I will flip out. I also hate being near cars with loud bass but luckily that doesn’t happen very often.