The Holiday Season Can Be a Terrifying Experience for Individuals Living with Sound Sensitivity.
A 23-year-old hopes for seeing her relatives over the holidays, but says a primary method she'll manage to get through it is by wearing her hearing protection - especially during the main festive feast.
For her, the holidays often feels like a particularly difficult period as the noises of people eating, slurping and breathing heavily trigger profound anxiety.
"I experience this wave of instant dread, my entire being will just tighten and it seems as if I'm in peril, and I need to manage these sounds."
She has experienced sound sensitivity since she was 16 and for her that causes the Christmas time "incredibly overwhelming".
Misophonia is a decreased threshold to particular auditory triggers, particularly those produced by individuals.
It is prevalent in the UK. A study discovered a significant portion of people suffer from it.
Typically it's sounds connected to bodily functions that cause distress, as well as things like crunching, breathing, and repetitive finger tapping.
'Anxiety Inducing'
The sufferer notes: "There are so many different triggering sounds at the holidays and that can be stressful and make you fear 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 sufferers.
Sounds that may be considered normal, like someone sipping a beverage, opening presents, or tucking into a Christmas dinner can cause a strong emotional response that can even result in them withdrawing from gatherings.
She, a 21-year-old student, who has experienced misophonia for over a decade, states her strategy is to listen to music to get through dinner. Usually, she would frequently go in a quiet area to minimize problematic noises.
She notes her misophonia is worse around people she's most familiar with, so Christmas is always "challenging".
"There's an expectation to be around family, and I want to, but it's physically and mentally challenging.
"The sensation is this sudden rage comes over me, which can feel shameful, or I'll feel anxious and burst into tears and then fight-or-flight will kick in.
"To others it appears as if I'm being difficult and overreacting, but it's hard to explain without firsthand experience."
A Few Techniques to Manage
For those affected then there are some different techniques you can use to handle the situation, based on advice from clinical psychologists.
- Picture Something Else: Mental imagery is crucial. Work on connecting the particular sound causing distress with something completely different. So for example, try to envision someone's noisy drinking is just a sink draining water. The goal is to teach your brain that the sound affecting you poses no threat.
- Make it a Game: Introduce playfulness and turn the annoying sound into a challenge with the culprit. For example, if someone is crunching loudly have a go at copying the noise. Through participation, rather than feeling like the sound is unwanted, you become an engaged person. And the game aspect should help distract your brain and make you a little less affected.
- Develop a Narrative: A further strategy is to try to fabricate an explanation about the reason someone making the noise is behaving that way. So if someone was making a nasal sound, perhaps they're not at their best or maybe they're upset. The idea is changing the meaning of the sound. Although the sound remains identical, your reaction of it moves from being aggravating, to feeling a slightly more compassionate towards it.