Yuletide Transforms Into a Nightmare for Those with Misophonia.
One young woman anticipates spending time with her family over the holidays, but notes one of the only ways she'll manage to get through it is by wearing her noise-cancelling devices - notably for the holiday meal.
In her case, the holidays is a especially challenging period as the sounds of other people chewing, drinking noisily and nose-blowing cause her extremely uncomfortable.
"I get this feeling of instant dread, my entire being will just tighten and it seems as if I'm in danger, and I need to stop these sounds."
Lottie has lived with misophonia from a young age and for her that makes the holiday period "deeply taxing".
Misophonia is a decreased threshold to particular auditory triggers, particularly those produced by other people.
It is prevalent across the population. Researchers discovered a significant portion of people suffer from it.
Often it's sounds associated with mouth, throat or facial movements that cause distress, along with things like crunching, heavy breathing, and pen clicking.
A Source of Dread
The sufferer notes: "There are so many assorted problematic noises at the holidays and that can be anxiety inducing and make you fear it.
"My relatives are understanding, but I'm very conscious that I don't want to spoil the mood. It's like a internal conflict of sacrificing my own sanity to make sure others enjoy themselves."
So it's obvious why the traditionally happy time of the year can transform into a stressful ordeal for affected individuals.
Sounds that may seem harmless, like someone sipping a beverage, unwrapping gifts, or eating the holiday meal can trigger a visceral feeling that can even cause them skipping events entirely.
The student, a university student, who has struggled with sound sensitivity since aged 10, explains currently her plan is to put her earphones in to get through dinner. On any other day, she would usually isolate herself in a separate space to avoid triggering sounds.
She says her sensitivity is worse around people she's most comfortable with, so the holidays is always "difficult".
"There's an expectation to spend time with loved ones, and I wish to, but it's exhausting on all levels.
"I feel as if this uncontrollable anger comes over me, which can feel awkward, or I'll feel stressed and begin to weep and then fight-or-flight will activate.
"To others it appears as if I'm being oversensitive and melodramatic, but it's hard to explain unless you've experienced it."
Three Ways to Cope
For those affected then there are some different techniques you can try to cope the situation, based on advice from clinical psychologists.
- Visualise Something Else: Imagination is essential. Try to associate the particular sound bothering you with an unrelated image. So for example, try to imagine someone's slurping is just a sink draining water. By doing this is to teach your brain that the sound triggering you poses no threat.
- Make it a Game: Introduce playfulness and turn the annoying sound into a competition with the person. As an example, if someone is crunching loudly attempt mimicking the sound. By mimicking, rather than feeling like the sound is an attack, you become an active participant. And the competition element should help distract your brain and make you slightly more tolerant.
- Craft a Story: Another technique is to try to invent a reason about the reason someone making the noise is doing it. So if someone was making a nasal sound, maybe they are not feeling well or maybe they're upset. By doing this is changing the meaning of the sound. Even though the sound stays the same, your understanding of it shifts from being irritating, to feeling a slightly more compassionate towards it.
