The Holiday Season Can Be a Nightmare for Misophonia Sufferers.
Lottie hopes for being with her loved ones this Christmas, but notes one of the only ways she'll cope is by using her earplugs - especially during Christmas dinner.
For her, Christmas can be a especially challenging time as the auditory triggers of family members munching, drinking noisily and sniffling trigger intense distress.
"There's this sensation of immediate anxiety, my whole body will just tighten and it as though I'm in danger, and I need to manage these triggers."
She has lived with misophonia since she was 16 and for her that causes the festive season "incredibly overwhelming".
Misophonia is an intense sensitivity to certain sounds, notably sounds made by other people.
The condition is widespread across the population. A study reported a significant portion of people are affected by it.
Often it's noises linked to eating or drinking that lead to discomfort, as well as examples such as chewing, heavy breathing, and repetitive finger tapping.
Triggering Stress
Lottie says: "There are so many various auditory triggers at the holidays and that can be daunting and make you dread it.
"My relatives are understanding, but I'm very aware that I don't want to make other people feel uncomfortable. It's like a really big battle of sacrificing my own sanity to guarantee the event goes smoothly."
So it's easy to understand why the traditionally happy season can quickly turn into a source of agony for affected individuals.
Sounds that may appear innocuous, like someone sipping a beverage, rustling a roll of wrapping paper, or enjoying festive food can cause a powerful reaction that can even result in them withdrawing from gatherings.
The student, a young adult, who has experienced sound sensitivity since aged 10, explains the approach she intends to use is to put her earphones in to cope. Typically, she would frequently go in a different room to escape distressing triggers.
She says her misophonia is more pronounced around people she's closest to, so Christmas is always "hard".
"There's an expectation to spend time with family, and I desire to, but it's exhausting on all levels.
"It's like this uncontrollable anger takes hold, which can feel embarrassing, or I'll feel panicked and immediately start crying and then fight-or-flight will activate.
"To others it appears as if I'm being unreasonable and dramatic, but it's tough to describe without firsthand experience."
Several Strategies to Cope
If you suffer then there are various strategies you can attempt to manage the situation, based on advice from specialists.
- Imagine Something Else: Imagination is essential. Try to associate the particular sound affecting you with a neutral concept. For instance, try to imagine someone's noisy drinking is just a waterfall. The goal is to retrain your mind that the sound triggering you is neutral.
- Use Humor: Have a bit of fun and make the irritating noise into a challenge involving the source. For instance, if someone is eating noisily try mimicking the sound. Through participation, instead of feeling like the sound is unwanted, you become an engaged person. And the challenge should help shift your attention and make you slightly more tolerant.
- Develop a Narrative: Another technique is to try to invent a reason about why the person making the noise is behaving that way. So if someone was making a nasal sound, it could be that they're not in good health or maybe they're upset. By doing this is re-framing the context of the sound. Even though the noise doesn't change, your understanding of it changes from being annoying, to feeling a slightly more compassionate about it.
