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Problem: hypervigilance has ramped WAY up this past year. When my phone makes noise or the doorbell rings, I go through the roof and it takes way too long to scrape me off the ceiling. (Or to use perhaps a more apt metaphor, coax me back out from underneath the metaphorical sofa where I'm hiding with the cats.)
Life Hack: I changed all the alerts on my phone to bird noises. I picked non-native bird species, because lbr the corvids in my yard alone can be Quite Loud. But if my alert noise is a loon, my brain does not immediately go DUCK AND COVER.
Hopefully at some point I can live in a place where I have control over the doorbell, and we can either "accidentally" break it or replace the noise with something that does not also set off my startle response.
I offer this most excellent life hack to you, dear friends, because I know I can't be the only Autistic person with PTSD who would like to spend less time feeling like a cat with a floofed out tail.
Also, if my brain eventually decides that the phone noises I picked equal danger, there's actually a WHOLE HOST of nature sounds I can use instead of ring tones. BRILLIANT.
Life Hack: I changed all the alerts on my phone to bird noises. I picked non-native bird species, because lbr the corvids in my yard alone can be Quite Loud. But if my alert noise is a loon, my brain does not immediately go DUCK AND COVER.
Hopefully at some point I can live in a place where I have control over the doorbell, and we can either "accidentally" break it or replace the noise with something that does not also set off my startle response.
I offer this most excellent life hack to you, dear friends, because I know I can't be the only Autistic person with PTSD who would like to spend less time feeling like a cat with a floofed out tail.
Also, if my brain eventually decides that the phone noises I picked equal danger, there's actually a WHOLE HOST of nature sounds I can use instead of ring tones. BRILLIANT.
