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Paid $200 for noise cancelling headphones and they actually made my overstimulation worse
Everyone told me noise cancelling headphones were a lifesaver for sensory issues, so I bought a pair from Sony last month. But the weird pressure feeling in my ears when the cancellation kicks in actually makes me more anxious, not less. I ended up returning them after three days and went back to my old $20 foam earplugs. Now I'm sitting here wondering if anyone else has this reaction or if I'm just unlucky. Do you use headphones or earplugs for overstimulation?
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taylor_fox10d ago
My buddy tried those same Sony ones and had the exact same thing happen. He said it felt like his eardrums were getting sucked in or something. He switched to some cheap foam earplugs from the drugstore and never looked back.
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jesse_cooper10d ago
That "weird pressure feeling" you mentioned is actually super common (it's called the occlusion effect, something about how your brain processes the silence). It's kind of like how "life hacks" for anxiety often just swap one kind of discomfort for another, you know?
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