Is there a word for being overwhelmed by noise?
I often find myself completely overwhelmed by the noise around me, to the point of bearing my arms down over my head and shutting my ears as tightly as possible.
It's not necessarily the loudness of the noise, and it's definitely not the suddenness, so it has nothing to do with being startled. It's the sheer volume of different noises coming from different directions and different things causing the sensation of being completely overwhelmed.
For me personally I believe this is related to my autism, but I'm not looking for a medical term for a condition - ideally, this should be able to describe the same sensation being felt by a perfectly healthy person without any disorders.
Is there a word for this feeling of being utterly subsumed by noise, especially in crowded areas?
Solution 1:
From what I've read and heard about autism, many people with that condition describe experiences of sensory overload which are not restricted to excessive sound stimulation — the problematic stimuli can also be social, visual, tactile, olfactory and gustatory, depending on the individual sufferer and the exact circumstances in which they find themselves.
Solution 2:
Yes, deafened, although typically used literally, to mean being rendered permanently or temporarily deaf, also has a secondary, more figurative meaning of being overwhelmed by a loud sound.
(of a loud noise) overwhelm (someone) with sound.
"the roar of the water deafened them"