Hi all, I'm currently living in downtown Los Angeles for the past 4 months and I'm so distressed by the noise in my apartment. I've been dealing with noise sensitivity as long as I can remember. I've moved apartments 3 times now over a span of 5 years due to noise issues. Things that trigger me are music from neighbors, high pitch sounds, footstep sounds, and doors slamming shut. In my current apartment, I'm living on the top floor, but I hear door slamming sounds from my downstairs neighbors all the time. Pretty much every 10 seconds I hear a door slam. I also hear a high pitch noise from the surrounding area since I live next to solar panels... I've thought a lot about moving, but I would have to break my lease and spend thousands of dollars plus moving costs. In the meantime I've been wearing noise cancelling headphones and also just tolerating the noise, but it makes me have anxiety every day in my own apartment. I would say the amount of distress I deal with on a daily basis is 6/10. I also recently became friends with my ex again after 7 months of no contact due to us both having issues in our life and needing to support each other. Sometimes I text her when my anxiety gets unbearable and it helps to have someone to vent to. I have a therapist I really connect with as well, but he's super expensive and I only see him at breaking points due to cost. He wasn't willing to reduce his price.

I feel like my anxiety over my living situation has been persistent and makes me not enjoy being by myself. I often want to be distracted by the presence of my ex physically near me so I don't have to worry about the noise. Before reconnecting with my ex, I would distract myself by using dating apps all the time obsessively, ANYTHING, to get my mind off my own thoughts and living situation.

 Sometimes, I have thought about moving to a more remote location away from Los Angeles, like to another state where I can afford a house. I can seriously buy a house right now if the price is under $400,000, but I'm highly reluctant to move to another state and ditch my entire family, and friends.

After my breakup with my ex, I want to be more healthy and be able to finally be comfortable in my own skin, but my noise sensitivity is one of the biggest hurdles to that. How can I be happy if my life is just one huge pursuit of the next distraction to keep me from focusing on noises around me? Does ANYBODY have any advice for me. God bless you (I'm an atheist and I'm saying that, that's how desperate I am).