Voices that make you uncomfortable

[NDR2]

There's been talk in the forum about images that make us uncomfortable. It's very likely that certain voices may have made us uncomfortable at one time or another. As a child, there were certain types of voices that may have seemed unappealing or would make me feel uneasy - certainly if they sounded strange, unpleasant, or loud. So I thought I'd start a thread for people to talk about it. Those with sensory issues may want to proceed in this thread with caution.

I'll start with some examples in scenes from "Sesame Street." I was a highly sensitive child, so quite a few of the scenes on "Sesame Street" could have upset, saddened, or seem unpleasant to me. Certainly types of voices could add to those feelings.

I didn't find the voices of the boys in this cartoon pleasant. But the voice of the boy with the cap seemed sort of "harsh."

I know this is two pictures of Bill Cosby, but that didn't quite occur to me when I was a child. I preferred the voice of the one on the left to the one on the right - particularly since the one on the right yelled a couple of times.

I didn't like the ending of this cartoon.

I particularly didn't like the ending of this scene. But the announcer's voice didn't sound too pleasant even at normal tone. (Definitely keep the volume low for this one if you have sensory issues.)

I didn't like the gruff voice of the catcher.

I didn't like the sounds the adults made as they ate the phone.

- YouTube

The voice in this film sounded sort of unpleasant to me. I've seen some things on-line about people who were frightened by this film as a child, but it didn't bother me too much visually. (I did notice the pale color of the hand. And I agree on one description of the voice as "someone on Prozac." I didn't find the organ music "scary," but I didn't like slow music as a child, so it didn't really appeal to me.)
- YouTube

 

[Misery]

For me it's anyone singing anything for any reason. No exceptions.

As a kid I would watch like a Disney movie or something (albeit rarely) and I'd try to skip past the musical parts.

Not much else to say about it really. I usually dont mention it, it confuses the heck outta people and then trying to explain further just worsens that.

 

[Neonatal RRT]

Musical theater.

This is not normal behavior, it is quite disturbing to me, I don't get it, I find it quite repulsive. For some reason, some people enjoy musicals, going to see Broadway plays, etc. If you want to sing a song, sing a song. If you want to tell a story on stage, then do so. If you want to dance, then dance. Just don't combine them. Nobody dances and sings their way through their daily life in the real world. It hurts my brain to think why anyone would think this is entertaining.

The "mom voice". The tone of voice that gets used when she wants to grab your attention so she can discipline you, order you to do chores around the house, etc. Abrasive.

 

[AuroraBorealis]

I'm very familiar with this issue. It doesn't happen all too often, but I've encountered several people whose voices are incredibly uncomfortable to me. They all are more high-pitched, and have a somewhat complainy sound to them. It makes me feel tensed up as soon as that person starts speaking, and I get overstimulated by them much quicker than by others.

 

[Captain Mars]

I've got an unusual knack for picking up emotions from others, not by observation, but by pitch and feel. I'm also hyper-averse to conflict, pathologically so, I might add. See where this is going?
Maybe it's partly my unstable upbringing, maybe it's how easily I become overstimulated, but every time someone starts shouting, even if it isn't directed at me, I get this feeling like I'm going to have a panic attack. More often than not, I just freeze up, like a deer in headlights. Like my brain is just incapable of dealing with it, so I shut down.

Side note; as the child of emotionally unstable parents, picking freeze out of fight flight or freeze was probably worse than picking anything else. They did NOT like that at ALL.

 

[NDR2]

Musical theater.

This is not normal behavior, it is quite disturbing to me, I don't get it, I find it quite repulsive. For some reason, some people enjoy musicals, going to see Broadway plays, etc. If you want to sing a song, sing a song. If you want to tell a story on stage, then do so. If you want to dance, then dance. Just don't combine them. Nobody dances and sings their way through their daily life in the real world. It hurts my brain to think why anyone would think this is entertaining.

I know what you mean. I’ve seen movie versions of musical plays, and they tend to be rather ridiculous.

 

[NDR2]

For me it's anyone singing anything for any reason. No exceptions.

As a kid I would watch like a Disney movie or something (albeit rarely) and I'd try to skip past the musical parts.

Not much else to say about it really. I usually dont mention it, it confuses the heck outta people and then trying to explain further just worsens that.

Yes, I’ve always had complex issues with singing voices - opera singing in particular, which I never liked. It did scare me a little when I was a child. Certainly the voices could be loud. Female opera voices sounded like screaming to me. Imagine if opera singers talked the same way they sang. Well of course I know opera singers talk in the same kinds of voices as everyone else – their speaking voices could be pleasant, too. The weird part is that there was often an uneasiness I felt about opera singers. There have even been people I knew who had opera type voices when they sang. It would be an underlying fear for me. Sometimes even women I found attractive would sing that way, and that would be a turn-off to me. But recently I’ve been overcoming that feeling.

 

[Misery]

Yes, I’ve always had complex issues with singing voices - opera singing in particular, which I never liked. It did scare me a little when I was a child. Certainly the voices could be loud. Female opera voices sounded like screaming to me. Imagine if opera singers talked the same way they sang. Well of course I know opera singers talk in the same kinds of voices as everyone else – their speaking voices could be pleasant, too. The weird part is that there was often an uneasiness I felt about opera singers. There have even been people I knew who had opera type voices when they sang. It would be an underlying fear for me. Sometimes even women I found attractive would sing that way, and that would be a turn-off to me. But recently I’ve been overcoming that feeling.

Honestly for me it was a bit different... it's hard to explain, but it's almost like my verbal/language processing sorta bugs out when anyone is singing. I cant understand a word of it, it all becomes a disjointed mess that I cant grasp. Heck if I know why. So from my perspective, it ends up being sort of a really messed up "instrument" that just gets in the way of the actual music and is just too distracting that I have to try to avoid it.

However, I can understand what a sort of fear of it might be like. I dont know about you but my sensory overload triggers are mostly audio-based. Super loud sounds in particular will just knock me for a loop. As a kid the potential for problematic sounds could get me overly nervous about whatever happened to be going on.

 

[GrownupGirl]

Vocal fry. I hate it. I have watched a few YouTube videos that would have been good if the woman narrating didn't have such a creaky, croaky voice. I had to stop watching because I couldn't focus what was on the video.

In case you don't know already, vocal fry is a name for someone whose voice sounds "creaky" instead of clear, especially at the end of their sentences. A lot of young women seem to currently speak thins way for some reason and I don't know why. Why can't their voices just be clear instead of sounding like they have tonsillitis? In fact, a lot of female voices drive me crazy. They're too shrill, or too whiny, or too creaky.

Some guys have voices that I hate as well. Like in this one video I found it hard to find take the information in it seriously because the narrator sounded like Teddy Ruxpin. I am not kidding. He sounded like he should be doing voices for stuffed talking bears instead of YouTube videos about the tragedies of famous actors.

I didn't mind the voices in those vintage Sesame Street sketches I saw as a kid. I used to hear a lot more discomforting voices in the French speaking segments in the Canadian version. The animation was often more discomforting, too.

 

[GrownupGirl]

I guess eventually all voices will be will be done in AI instead of real humans. That's even worse.

 

[NDR2]

I also watched "The Electric Company" when I was very young, which I was too young for. Parts of the show scared me. It was also the same issue of being highly sensitive, which caused scenes to seem unpleasant or upsetting - with the voices, too.

Certainly this classic line from the show bothered me. (Keep the volume low if you have sensory issues.)

The one thing on the show that bothered me the most was this series of cartoons (the first one in the video - the second one didn't bother me that much). Not only was it scary visually, but auditorily as well - with the loud music and the loud deistic voice. (Definitely keep the volume low for this one. It's quite loud. I have to keep it low myself.)

The ending of this song was a little much for me.