The Holiday Season Can Be a Nightmare for Misophonia Sufferers.
A 23-year-old hopes for being with her family this Christmas, but notes a primary method she'll manage to get through it is by relying on her earplugs - particularly at the main festive feast.
For her, Christmas is a especially challenging season as the auditory triggers of people eating, slurping and breathing heavily cause her extremely uncomfortable.
"I get this feeling of immediate anxiety, my whole body will just tighten and it as though I'm in danger, and I need to somehow control these sounds."
Lottie has suffered from misophonia from a young age and for her that renders the Christmas time "exceptionally stressful".
Misophonia is a reduced tolerance to specific noises, notably sounds coming from other people.
It is prevalent amongst adults. Researchers reported almost one in five people experience it.
Typically it's sounds linked to mouth, throat or facial movements that trigger a reaction, as well as examples such as crunching, breathing, and repetitive finger tapping.
Triggering Stress
Lottie says: "You encounter so many assorted problematic noises at the holidays and that can be stressful 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 constant struggle of sacrificing my own sanity to ensure everyone else is happy."
So it's obvious why the supposedly joyous period can transform into a living nightmare for sufferers.
Sounds that may seem harmless, like someone sipping a beverage, unwrapping gifts, or tucking into a Christmas dinner can provoke a powerful reaction that can even result in them avoiding social settings altogether.
The student, a young adult, who has dealt with sound sensitivity from childhood, explains her strategy is to use headphones to manage the meal. On any other day, she would usually isolate herself in a different room to minimize distressing triggers.
She says her condition is more pronounced around people she's most comfortable with, so Christmas is always "challenging".
"There's an expectation to spend time with loved ones, and I want to, but it's exhausting on all levels.
"The sensation is this sudden rage comes over me, which can feel embarrassing, or I'll feel panicked and immediately start crying and then the stress response will kick in.
"It can come across as if I'm being difficult and melodramatic, but it's hard to explain if you haven't felt it."
A Few Techniques to Cope
If you suffer then there are a few methods you can use to handle the situation, according to specialists.
- Picture a Different Scenario: Creative thinking is crucial. Work on connecting the particular sound causing distress with a neutral concept. For instance, try to imagine someone's noisy drinking is just a waterfall. The goal is to teach your brain that the sound affecting you isn't harmful.
- Use Humor: Have a bit of fun and make the irritating noise into a competition involving the source. For example, if someone is crunching loudly have a go at copying the noise. By joining in, rather than feeling like the sound is being imposed on you, you become an engaged person. And the competition element should help distract your brain and make you a little less affected.
- Create a Scenario: One more method is to try to invent a reason about the reason someone creating the sound is doing it. So if someone was sniffing, it could be that they're not feeling well or could be emotional. By doing this is changing the meaning of the sound. Even though the noise doesn't change, your reaction of it changes from being annoying, to feeling a little more neutral towards it.