Noise and problems thinking

Noise causes untold problems to people who have dementia, but recently I have noticed that it is starting to effect me more each day.

Over the years I have noticed that the noise level has gone up considerably in this life, and where most people seem to get on with life ignoring this, it has become harder for me to cope.

I stopped going to a lot of meetings which were, not kept in control by a strong chairperson, because it was becoming very difficult to listen to the main topic while others chatted among themselves, as well as the mobile phones which kept going off, because people would not switch them to silent. The problem we struggle with is concentration, and while trying to keep our concentration going on the main topic, it does not take much noise to break this and we have to think where we were all over again.

I accept that life is very busy for most people these days, but its no different to when I was working and mobile phones were not allowed in meetings. It seems very strange that many people did not have these items till the last twenty years, now it seems that many will not go anywhere without one of these things firmly clamped to their ears, whether in the street, in a meeting or travelling on a train, and you have to listen to their exploits from that day or the night before, which to me is embarrassing but it means nothing to that person themselves.

Yesterday I went with my wife to book a holiday, and found that the noise in the Travel agents was so horrific that I removed my hearing aids, as every one's voice was merging into one, just like one of my horrible nightmares, and I had to leave all the decisions to my wife, who by this stage in life is used to it.

But I often wonder why it is that people these days have to speak to loud, and don't think of trying to speak quietly so they are not disrupting other peoples conversations or in our case "our thoughts".
It seems we are all trying to outdo each other.

The same thing happens when we go shopping and it seems that each shop has loud music being pumped out of the doors, so by the time you get into the shop you cannot think. I know that at work we had regulations concerning the noise from machines etc, yet there does not seem to be anything covering working in shops when they have loud music.

Another thing which seems to get me wound up is when we go into a supermarket, and someone keeps shouting over a tannoy system, and repeats themselves three or four times by which time, I have forgotten what I am looking for. These places are becoming a nightmare to me, and I am starting to hate them, either because of the tannoy systems or the mad idiots with the trolleys who go hurtling round the aisles as if they were racing.

Or is it the fact that through my Lewy Body Dementia, my brain these days is now struggling to pick up sounds, and some sounds are much are louder that others.

I wish my blog could write this out without all of the mistakes and misspellings I keep finding, but at least I can still use spell check when I remember to use it.