Auditory Fatigue

A night of silence could be just what I need

By John Groom

May 2005

Psychobabble is a column to explore the twilight zone of hi-fi. That strange place where the improbable meets the impossible, the fussy meets the obsessional, and the physical meets the psychological.

Mt Taranaki The most common comment that people make about my day job as a psychologist is "it must be exhausting, listening to people's problems all day".

This comment is half true. Obviously it would be easy to be depressed by other's worries. I find in reality that we are much more resourceful than we realise and hence much of my work is uplifting as I join people in celebrating their successes. This is particularly so now that I am focusing primarily on coaching and mentoring.

The part that is true is that focused listening is of itself very tiring.

Rocky mountain air

To get away from it all, Juliet and I recently had a few days tramping around Mt Taranaki. There were few people and even fewer vehicles. There was a great sense of stillness... the sort that makes you drop your voice to a whisper when entering into a cathedral. There was a great deal of silence on the whole trip - the car radio was left untouched, the motel TV was unplugged and I don't remember seeing a Walkman or an iPod anywhere. Apart from conversation we were renewing ourselves with the sounds of nature. The sounds of the streams, the wind, and the bird life all had a special poignancy.

Home sweet home

On returning home I didn't like the sound of the hi-fi at all. It seemed thin, boxy, and fatiguing. Hey, in case you think this was just my hi-fi then follow me to the shops and you would have found me jumping out of my skin at the sound of a diesel bus waiting at the lights.

In case you think it was just my nerves, well yes the hi-fi is now sounding much better and I can sit in Auckland traffic without dreaming of a Valium. Maybe when I returned I was just re-experiencing Auckland the way that an out-of-town person would.

Time out of mind

For much of the past decade I lived in 'central' Milford. When I first moved there I was surprised by the occasional traffic sound. By the time I left it had become a constant background rumble that grew louder each year. When this happens the mind has an accommodation process so that we tune out the background noise. It was only when we were up the mountain that the absence of sound became apparent. There is a similar process of accommodation for me when I go to the bach and move from a CD based system to an vinyl one. It is only for the first few hours that I am aware of the record noise and then I just flow with the music.

The sound of silence

I eventually solved the traffic noise problem by moving to a bush-lined section elsewhere on the North Shore. There have still been significant variations in my subjective enjoyment of the hi-fi hobby. I used to attribute all of this variation to fluctuations in the power supply and certainly for those of us living in Auckland the future quality of the supply does not look promising.

Since the holiday on the mountain I am thinking much more psychologically about the problem. Perhaps when I have gone off the sound it is not a variation in the system or even in my mood. It could just be auditory fatigue - I am all listened out. After a day focusing on others I may not be up to more listening. The most settling way to spend an evening could be without a hi-fi, radio or TV blaring.

A night of silence could be just what I need. It is after all what I recommend to my clients.

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John Groom is a psychologist working in private practice on Auckland's North Shore. John has over three decades experience in both hi-fi and psychology.

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