Yuletide Often Proves to Be a Nightmare for Misophonia Sufferers.
A 23-year-old is looking forward to being with her relatives over the holidays, but admits a key strategy she'll endure is by relying on her noise-cancelling devices - notably for the holiday meal.
In her case, this time of year often feels like a especially challenging season as the sounds of family members munching, sipping loudly and nose-blowing trigger profound anxiety.
"I get this wave of sudden panic, my whole body will just freeze and it feels like I'm in danger, and I need to manage these sounds."
She has lived with this condition for several years and for her that causes the holiday period "exceptionally stressful".
Misophonia is an intense sensitivity to specific noises, notably sounds coming from those around you.
The condition is widespread across the population. Experts reported a significant portion of people are affected by it.
Often it's noises connected to mouth, throat or facial movements that lead to discomfort, including things like crunching, breathing, and pen clicking.
A Source of Dread
She explains: "I face so many different triggering sounds at the holidays and that can be daunting and make you dread it.
"My relatives are supportive, but I'm very aware that I don't want to make other people feel uncomfortable. It's like a internal conflict of managing my symptoms to make sure others enjoy themselves."
So it's easy to understand why the most wonderful season can quickly turn into a living nightmare for those with the condition.
Triggers that may seem harmless, like someone drinking champagne, rustling a roll of wrapping paper, or tucking into a Christmas dinner can cause a visceral feeling that can even lead to them avoiding social settings altogether.
She, a 21-year-old student, who has dealt with misophonia from childhood, says the approach she intends to use is to use headphones to manage the meal. Usually, she would usually isolate herself in a different room to avoid problematic noises.
She explains her sensitivity is more pronounced around people she's most comfortable with, so Christmas is always "hard".
"People assume you to spend time with family, and I wish to, but it's physically and mentally challenging.
"The sensation is this sudden rage takes hold, which can feel shameful, or I'll feel panicked and begin to weep and then fight-or-flight will activate.
"It can come across as if I'm being oversensitive and melodramatic, but it's difficult to convey unless you've experienced it."
Several Strategies to Handle It
If you suffer then there are a few methods you can use to handle the situation, based on advice from clinical psychologists.
- Picture Something Else: Imagination is crucial. Attempt to link the particular sound affecting you with something completely different. So for example, try to envision someone's slurping is just a gentle stream. This technique is to teach your brain that the sound affecting you is neutral.
- Use Humor: Introduce playfulness and make the irritating noise into a competition with the person. For example, if someone is crunching loudly have a go at joining in. By mimicking, instead of feeling like the sound is being imposed on you, you become an engaged person. And the game aspect should help shift your attention and make you a little less affected.
- Create a Scenario: Another technique is to try to fabricate an explanation about why the person making the noise is doing it. For example if someone was making a nasal sound, perhaps they're not feeling well or maybe they're upset. The idea is re-framing the context of the sound. Although the noise stays the same, your interpretation of it shifts from being aggravating, to feeling a little more neutral about it.
