Yuletide Can Be a Terrifying Experience for Misophonia Sufferers.
One young woman anticipates seeing her relatives over the holidays, but notes a key strategy she'll endure is by using her noise-cancelling devices - particularly at the main festive feast.
For her, Christmas is a especially challenging time as the noises of family members munching, drinking noisily and sniffling trigger profound anxiety.
"I experience this feeling of sudden panic, my whole body will just freeze and it as though I'm in danger, and I need to manage these triggers."
The individual has experienced misophonia from a young age and for her that causes the holiday period "exceptionally stressful".
Misophonia is a reduced tolerance to particular auditory triggers, notably sounds made by those around you.
It's surprisingly common in the UK. Experts discovered nearly 20% people suffer from it.
Often it's sounds connected to bodily functions that lead to discomfort, as well as things like crunching, breathing, and foot tapping.
'Anxiety Inducing'
She explains: "You encounter so many different triggering sounds at the holidays and that can be anxiety inducing and make you fear it.
"Those close to me are understanding, but I'm very conscious that I don't want to make other people feel uncomfortable. It's like a constant struggle of enduring my distress to make sure everyone else is happy."
So it's easy to understand why the supposedly joyous period can transform into a stressful ordeal for affected individuals.
Triggers that may be considered normal, like someone slurping a Buck's fizz, unwrapping gifts, or eating the holiday meal can provoke a visceral feeling that can even result in them skipping events entirely.
She, a university student, who has struggled with misophonia from childhood, states the approach she intends to use is to use headphones to manage the meal. On any other day, she would frequently go in a quiet area to minimize triggering sounds.
She notes her condition is more intense around people she's most comfortable with, so the holidays is always "hard".
"There's an expectation to spend time with family, and I want to, but it's draining.
"I feel as if this uncontrollable anger comes over me, which can feel embarrassing, or I'll feel panicked and burst into tears and then panic will activate.
"To others it appears as if I'm being difficult and melodramatic, but it's hard to explain unless you've experienced it."
Three Ways to Handle It
If you suffer then there are various strategies you can attempt to manage the situation, according to clinical psychologists.
- Picture an Alternative: Imagination is key. Work on connecting the specific noise affecting you with something completely different. So for example, try to imagine someone's noisy drinking is just a waterfall. The goal is to retrain your mind that the sound affecting you poses no threat.
- Try a Competition: Introduce playfulness and make the irritating noise into a game with the culprit. As an example, if someone is eating noisily try joining in. By joining in, rather than feeling like the sound is being imposed on you, you become an willing part. And the game aspect should help distract your brain and make you a little less affected.
- Develop a Narrative: One more method is to try to fabricate an explanation about why the person creating the sound is doing it. For example if someone was making a nasal sound, it could be that they're not at their best or maybe they're upset. The idea is altering the perception of the sound. While the sound stays the same, your reaction of it shifts from being irritating, to feeling a bit more accepting towards it.
