The Holiday Season Often Proves to Be a Nightmare for Misophonia Sufferers.
A 23-year-old is looking forward to being with her relatives during the festive period, but admits a key strategy she'll endure is by relying on her noise-cancelling devices - especially during Christmas dinner.
For her, the holidays is a particularly difficult time as the sounds of people eating, sipping loudly and breathing heavily cause her extremely uncomfortable.
"I experience this wave of immediate anxiety, my whole body will just freeze and it as though I'm in danger, and I need to somehow control these triggers."
Lottie has suffered from this condition for several years and for her that causes the festive season "exceptionally stressful".
Misophonia is a reduced tolerance to certain sounds, notably sounds produced by individuals.
The condition is widespread across the population. Experts discovered almost one in five people suffer from it.
Frequently it's sounds associated with mouth, throat or facial movements that lead to discomfort, including examples such as crunching, breathing, and pen clicking.
A Source of Dread
Lottie says: "There are so many various auditory triggers at Christmas and that can be stressful and make you want to avoid it.
"My relatives are supportive, but I'm very mindful that I don't want to spoil the mood. It's like a internal conflict of enduring my distress to ensure others enjoy themselves."
So it's clear why the most wonderful season can rapidly become a stressful ordeal for those with the condition.
Noises that may seem harmless, like someone sipping a beverage, rustling a roll of wrapping paper, or tucking into a Christmas dinner can cause a powerful reaction that can even cause them skipping events entirely.
She, a 21-year-old student, who has experienced sound sensitivity from childhood, explains her strategy is to put her earphones in to manage the meal. On any other day, she would often retreat in a different room to escape triggering sounds.
She notes her condition is more intense around people she's most familiar with, so Christmas is always "challenging".
"There is pressure 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 awkward, or I'll feel anxious and immediately start crying and then fight-or-flight will kick in.
"To others it appears as if I'm being oversensitive and overreacting, but it's tough to describe if you haven't felt it."
A Few Techniques to Handle It
For those affected then there are a few methods you can use to handle the situation, based on advice from specialists.
- Imagine an Alternative: Mental imagery is crucial. Work on connecting the triggering sound affecting you with an unrelated image. For instance, try to envision someone's noisy drinking is just a waterfall. By doing this is to retrain your mind that the sound affecting you isn't harmful.
- Use Humor: Use lightheartedness and turn the annoying sound into a game involving the source. For example, if someone is eating noisily try joining in. By joining in, instead of feeling like the sound is being imposed on you, you become an willing part. And the challenge should help redirect your focus and make you a little less affected.
- Develop a Narrative: One more method is to try to create a little story about the reason someone making the noise is having to make that sound. Imagine if someone was sniffing, maybe they are not in good health or could be emotional. The idea is altering the perception of the sound. While the sound stays the same, your interpretation of it shifts from being annoying, to feeling a little more neutral about it.
