Christmas Transforms Into a Terrifying Experience for Those with Misophonia.
A 23-year-old hopes for spending time with her family this Christmas, but admits a key strategy she'll cope is by wearing her hearing protection - especially during the holiday meal.
For the 23-year-old, the holidays often feels like a notably tough time as the auditory triggers of family members munching, sipping loudly and nose-blowing cause her intense distress.
"There's this feeling of sudden panic, my whole body will just tighten and it seems as if I'm in peril, and I need to stop these noises."
She has lived with sound sensitivity since she was 16 and for her that renders the holiday period "incredibly overwhelming".
Misophonia is a reduced tolerance to certain sounds, especially noises made by other people.
It is prevalent across the population. Experts found a significant portion of people experience it.
Typically it's noises linked to eating or drinking that lead to discomfort, as well as things like crunching, breathing, and pen clicking.
A Source of Dread
The sufferer notes: "You encounter so many various auditory triggers at Christmas and that can be daunting and make you want to avoid it.
"My family are supportive, but I'm very conscious that I don't want to spoil the mood. It's like a constant struggle of enduring my distress to ensure the event goes smoothly."
So it's easy to understand why the most wonderful time of the year can quickly turn into a source of agony for those with the condition.
Triggers that may be considered normal, like someone sipping a beverage, opening presents, or eating the holiday meal can trigger a strong emotional response that can even lead to them skipping events entirely.
The student, a 21-year-old student, who has dealt with sound sensitivity for over a decade, states the approach she intends to use is to put her earphones in to cope. On any other day, she would usually isolate herself in a separate space to minimize triggering sounds.
She says her sensitivity is more intense around people she's most familiar with, so Christmas is always "hard".
"There's an expectation to be around family, and I want to, but it's physically and mentally challenging.
"It's like this sudden rage washes over me, which can feel embarrassing, or I'll feel stressed and burst into tears and then fight-or-flight will take over.
"To others it appears as if I'm being unreasonable and melodramatic, but it's difficult to convey unless you've experienced it."
Several Strategies to Handle It
If it's an issue then there are a few methods you can attempt to manage the situation, based on advice from experts.
- Picture Something Else: Mental imagery is crucial. Try to associate the particular sound affecting you with something completely different. For instance, try to picture someone's noisy drinking is just a sink draining water. This technique is to teach your brain that the sound triggering you poses no threat.
- Use Humor: Introduce playfulness and make the irritating noise into a challenge with the culprit. For instance, if someone is crunching loudly have a go at mimicking the sound. By mimicking, rather than feeling like the sound is unwanted, you become an engaged person. And the game aspect should help shift your attention and make you somewhat less sensitive.
- Develop a Narrative: One more method is to try to create a little story about why the person creating the sound is behaving that way. So if someone was making a nasal sound, maybe they are not in good health or could be emotional. By doing this is altering the perception of the sound. Although the sound doesn't change, your reaction of it changes from being annoying, to feeling a little more neutral about it.
