The Holiday Season Often Proves to Be a Terrifying Experience for Misophonia Sufferers.
Lottie is looking forward to being with her loved ones over the holidays, but admits a primary method she'll endure is by relying on her hearing protection - particularly at the main festive feast.
In her case, the holidays often feels like a notably tough period as the auditory triggers of family members munching, slurping and breathing heavily trigger intense distress.
"I get this feeling of immediate anxiety, my whole body will just tense up and it as though I'm in a threatening situation, and I need to manage these sounds."
She has lived with misophonia from a young age and for her that makes the Christmas time "incredibly overwhelming".
Misophonia is a reduced tolerance to particular auditory triggers, particularly those coming from other people.
It's surprisingly common amongst adults. Researchers discovered a significant portion of people suffer from it.
Typically it's noises associated with mouth, throat or facial movements that cause distress, along with examples such as crunching, breathing, and pen clicking.
A Source of Dread
She explains: "You encounter so many various auditory triggers at the holidays and that can be daunting and make you dread it.
"My family are understanding, but I'm very mindful that I don't want to make other people feel uncomfortable. It's like a constant struggle of enduring my distress to guarantee everyone else is happy."
So it's easy to understand why the most wonderful time of the year can transform into a stressful ordeal for sufferers.
Noises that may be considered normal, like someone slurping a Buck's fizz, rustling a roll of wrapping paper, or eating the holiday meal can trigger a visceral feeling that can even result in them withdrawing from gatherings.
She, a university student, who has experienced sound sensitivity for over a decade, explains her strategy is to listen to music to manage the meal. On any other day, she would often retreat in a different room to escape problematic noises.
She notes her sensitivity is more pronounced around people she's most familiar with, so the holidays is always "challenging".
"People assume you to spend time with family, and I want to, but it's physically and mentally challenging.
"I feel as if this uncontrollable anger washes over me, which can feel shameful, or I'll feel stressed and begin to weep and then the stress response will activate.
"To others it appears as if I'm being unreasonable and overreacting, but it's difficult to convey if you haven't felt it."
Three Ways to Cope
For those affected then there are various strategies you can use to handle the situation, based on advice from experts.
- Visualise a Different Scenario: Mental imagery is crucial. Work on connecting the particular sound causing distress with a neutral concept. As an illustration, try to picture someone's noisy drinking is just a sink draining water. The goal is to help your brain learn that the sound triggering you isn't harmful.
- Use Humor: Introduce playfulness and make the irritating noise into a challenge with the person. For example, if someone is crunching loudly have a go at mimicking the sound. By mimicking, instead of feeling like the sound is being imposed on you, you become an active participant. And the competition element should help distract your brain and make you somewhat less sensitive.
- Craft a Story: One more method is to try to fabricate an explanation about why the person making the noise is having to make that sound. Imagine if someone was making a nasal sound, it could be that they're not in good health or are troubled. By doing this is altering the perception of the sound. Even though the noise remains identical, your interpretation of it moves from being irritating, to feeling a little more neutral about it.