White noise and concentration.

[tortilaman]

I personally have never really pursued it, but I recently realized that my P-doc has a whitenoise machine in his office waiting room and I kinda like it.

[hanikamiya]

Originally Posted by CaptainCadet

But, the sound of my blood is just as annoying and distracting as any other sound. I hate it

No tinnitus here, and I can't deal with many 'relaxing' sounds because they have too much rhythm and make me search for a pattern. White noise doesn't have either and after listening to it for a couple of seconds my mind just goes: 'aaah, it's useless' and shifts attention away from hearing to my other senses and logical reasoning. It's a bit of like when I'm in hyperfocus, but without having to have the really super interesting thing to focus on.

[Drewbacca]

Originally Posted by itsanADHDthing

Why in the hell would I want MORE senseless noise going on around me?!

Music helps. Tremendously. But any pointless noise (people talking, people eating, the tv, white noise, etc) scews me up.

Music distracts me. I start to pay too much attention to the music composition and hyperfocus on that. For me, it has to be white noise and/or not-understandable in order to help block out other noises.

[faller]

I live off of white noise! I just downloaded an app a couple of months ago that has thousands of sounds. Sometimes I like rain or crickets. Sometimes a lawn mower or buzzing electrical transformer. Really helps when I need to write.
Earplugs are good sometimes but, yeah, sometimes I end up listening to my own blood that way.

[QuantumIguana]

I used to have a nice quiet cube. OK, it was actually fairly noisy, with equipment running all day. But I never noticed it unless someone mentioned it. Then I got moved to a new cube, without the equipment noise.

Instead, I get people talking and talking and talking all day. People drumming their fingers. People singing, whistling and humming in their cubes. People talking on the phone, people blathering about politics.

White noise is absolute bliss. I can't shut out everyone's blathering. I use Simply Noise.com http://simplynoise.com/ It helps me erase all the blathering. With music, I have to blast it to cut out the noise, with white noise, I need far less volume.

[Danteloogi]

We have this really loud fan blowing at work all day that keeps me at bay. Whenever the fan is turned off I noticed all of the people talking, phones ringing, the sound of people typing on the keyboard.

I also used to have one of those little sound machines that played rain sounds. I couldn't sleep without it.

[rockydaydreamer]

White noise would be good for practicing meditation if you intend on focusing only on the white noise to drown out all other sensory input.

However, if you want to interact with the outside world (things outside your head).... I wouldn't want it directly on my ears...

I don't mind the noise of an air conditioner, just don't have me sit so close it or else I can't hear you.

[QuantumIguana]

I find white noise to be quite useful for interacting with the outside world. It shuts out the auditory distractions. People talking is a major distraction for me. Some days are worse than others, some days I don't handle the stimuli well, and on other days there is just more of it, or people are blathering about politics. Then the earphones go on with the white noise, and I can do my job. Sometimes the relief is absolutely overwhelming.

[artymom]

It only helps me if it truly white noise. Like a fan running in the background. If there is a rhythm to it? I'm gone. It makes it impossible to focus on something else fully.

I find the sound of the ocean incredibly peaceful... but when I'm listening to the ocean or a recording of the ocean it's to concentrate on that sound. I can't focus on anything else at that moment and give it full attention.

Also? When my kids sing repetitive songs? (Which is the exact opposite of White Noise) I want to stab my ears with an ice pick. Just throwing that in because they've been home all Summer and I'm DONE.

[Joker_Girl]

My husband likes to go to sleep with the Sirius radio on. It took me AGES to get used to that. I used to lay awake trying to guess what would the next song be.

If i go to bed first i will not have it on. He can go to sleep with the TV on! I hate that!

I do have to have the ceiling fan going though. I get hot. We have a ceiling fan in every room.

I have this thing on my deck that looks like a rock waterfall, and the water goes through it, and it sounds like well, running water. I like the noise it makes. I wanted to bring it in and put it in the bedroom, but my husband said that was dumb and would make a mess.

[CheekyMonkey]

I need white noise to function.

I can't work to music though.

[BellaVita]

Yes, white noise seems to calm my mind. I MUST sleep with a fan going. If not, every little creak and noise in the house distracts me.

I also like the sound of a clock ticking...the rhythm soothes me.