Yuletide Often Proves to Be a Living Hell for Misophonia Sufferers.
Lottie is looking forward to spending time with her family over the holidays, but says a primary method she'll cope is by relying on her hearing protection - notably for Christmas dinner.
For the 23-year-old, the holidays is a notably tough time as the sounds of people eating, sipping loudly and breathing heavily cause her intense distress.
"I experience this wave of instant dread, my whole body will just freeze and it feels like I'm in danger, and I need to manage these sounds."
The individual has suffered from this condition for several years and for her that causes the Christmas time "incredibly overwhelming".
Misophonia is a decreased threshold to particular auditory triggers, notably sounds coming from those around you.
It is prevalent across the population. Experts found almost one in five people experience it.
Often it's sounds associated with eating or drinking that lead to discomfort, as well as examples such as crunching, breathing, and pen clicking.
'Anxiety Inducing'
The sufferer notes: "I face so many various auditory triggers at Christmas and that can be daunting and make you want to avoid it.
"Those close to me are understanding, but I'm very conscious that I don't want to upset others. It's like a constant struggle of enduring my distress to guarantee others enjoy themselves."
So it's easy to understand why the supposedly joyous period can transform into a stressful ordeal for affected individuals.
Noises that may appear innocuous, like someone drinking champagne, rustling a roll of wrapping paper, or eating the holiday meal can provoke a strong emotional response that can even result in them avoiding social settings altogether.
The student, a young adult, who has struggled with sound sensitivity from childhood, explains the approach she intends to use is to use headphones to cope. On any other day, she would usually isolate herself in a separate space to escape problematic noises.
She explains her sensitivity is more intense around people she's most familiar with, so the holidays is always "hard".
"There is pressure to spend time with loved ones, and I want to, but it's exhausting on all levels.
"I feel as if this sudden rage washes over me, which can feel embarrassing, or I'll feel stressed and immediately start crying and then panic will kick in.
"To others it appears as if I'm being unreasonable and melodramatic, but it's tough to describe without firsthand experience."
Three Ways to Cope
If it's an issue then there are a few methods you can try to cope the situation, as suggested by clinical psychologists.
- Picture Something Else: Mental imagery is crucial. Try to associate the particular sound affecting you with a neutral concept. So for example, try to picture someone's slurping is just a gentle stream. By doing this is to retrain your mind that the sound affecting you poses no threat.
- Try a Competition: Have a bit of fun and turn the annoying sound into a challenge with the person. For example, if someone is crunching loudly attempt copying the noise. By mimicking, instead of feeling like the sound is an attack, you become an engaged person. And the challenge should help distract your brain and make you a little less affected.
- Develop a Narrative: A further strategy is to try to invent a reason about the reason someone creating the sound is having to make that sound. Imagine if someone was sniffing, perhaps they're not at their best or are troubled. The idea is altering the perception of the sound. Even though the sound doesn't change, your reaction of it changes from being aggravating, to feeling a little more neutral towards it.
