why do bright lights and loud music bother me?

Please tell me that someone else is bothered by bright lights and loud music. I find vehicle headlights much more distracting and annoying than they used to be. I actually find that the sun shining thru the trees acts like an irritating strobe light! Loud music overwhelms my sense and takes me 24 hours to recover. Loud noises of any sort make me cower.

why do these bother me so much?

Sun through the trees "like a strobe light" is physically painful, I can't describe it. I'm so relieved to find someone else that has a problem with it. YELLOW turn signals are like that. OMG, cannot deal with it!

I don't know about the loud noises, but sound sensitivities are common. In a hypomanic state - when it's beyond the fun stuff and into scary irritability, a clock ticking, a computer or fridge humming will set me off! I used to unplug EVERYTHING and take batteries out of clocks, etc. At the worst of it I worked at WalMart as a cashier. Every register has a buzz/hum/electric noise, and then the coolers, the everything. Even the sensation of air movement would (and still can) set me off.

I don't know what it is, but I sum it up as "overstimulation."