I hate background noise but because I take a stimulant medication, the background noise isn't hurtful.
I do have a fear of jets and fire trucks. I'm always afraid that a fire truck will go off if I'm near it. The sirens of a fire truck will hurt my ears and cause me to cover my ears in some sort of reflex.
I have mild to moderate Autism so anything loud like thunder, fire trucks, yelling, babies crying, anything that would jump me or be too loud for me to handle, makes me cover up my ears.
I've cried because of thunder before. I've also had outbursts towards my mother for yelling at me and ended up melting down because I hate people who yell at me.
The sound just hurts my ears and I cry with panic.
As for silence, I usually hate being in my room without having the TV going or having both my fans on medium. It all adds up to what I said about sound above, because I'm afraid of hearing sudden noises that might cause me to panic, I have to have noises that bring comfort to me.