Quote Originally Posted by Lisa S.H. View Post
I'm like that, but even worse. I simply cannot work with any music or talking in the background at all...not even instrumental stuff. I play music in my spare time for fun with friends a lot, and any music on anywhere grabs my mind and pulls my attention to it. I can't work with that, it's way too distracting to me. Happily, I work at home (technical illustrator) and can have relative quiet to work in.

I find tv to be a very disturbing background noise- too much yelling (both "cheery" yelling in ads, and angry yelling), too many loud sudden noises, and too much stop/start/stop/start explosive type music....all highly aggressive sounding, even the canned laughter is rather explosive. Yuk. Constant TV racket was actually one of the breaking points of a former marriage. Blissfully, since then, I actually have not watched tv AT ALL in 9 years now. And my new DH and I think alike and like the very same things. Aaaahhhhhh.......
Interesting...now that I think about it, I think maybe it's the "stop/start" and "explosive" types of sounds that are the most distracting for me too. Along with not being able to study in front of the TV even if I'm not the one watching it, the other thing that drives me absolutely bonkers is if I'm studying on the train during my commute to/from school and somebody is on their cell phone or having a conversation with another passenger nearby! Particularly if they're loud--if they're being discreet and keeping their voices down it's not as bad. Sometimes I bring my iPod specifically to drown out stuff like that so I can concentrate better--ideally I like quiet when I'm studying, but I can do OK with instrumental music that's familiar and if it keeps my attention off the random sounds it helps a lot!