I cannot express how sympathetic I am with your condition. Luckily, I don’t have it, but I have a somewhat similar hypersensitivity to sound. The big difference? I find almost all of the sounds entertaining or at least neutral.

It isn’t as great as it seems because my mind compels me to listen. It’s not uncommon that I won’t be able to sleep because someone somewhere in the building is playing music, and I recognize the bass line. My wife, who technically has better hearing than I do, can barely notice that there’s sound at all, but my brain is saying, “Now it’s Whole Lotta Love — now it’s Pink Floyd’s Money — can’t they play something from the twenty-first century”? (Luckily, we now live in a quiet neighborhood.)

I also have issues with deep bass noises. I used to believe it was my imagination until I told my landlord that I thought something was wrong with the boiler, based on the sound, and he called me back to thank me because the pump was going. Then I discovered the other “imaginary” sound was in fact maintenance in the subway tunnel near our house.

I enjoyed the sounds — they just kept me awake. I can’t imagine how awful it must be if most of the sounds are annoying.