Yuletide Transforms Into a Nightmare for Individuals Living with Sound Sensitivity.
Lottie hopes for seeing her family this Christmas, but notes a key strategy she'll cope is by wearing her earplugs - particularly at the holiday meal.
For the 23-year-old, the holidays can be a especially challenging period as the auditory triggers of other people chewing, drinking noisily and sniffling make her feel intense distress.
"I experience this wave of sudden panic, my every muscle will just freeze and it feels like I'm in peril, and I need to manage these sounds."
She has experienced sound sensitivity from a young age and for her that renders the holiday period "incredibly overwhelming".
Misophonia is a reduced tolerance to certain sounds, especially noises produced by those around you.
It's surprisingly common across the population. Researchers discovered almost one in five people are affected by it.
Frequently it's noises associated with eating or drinking that trigger a reaction, along with things like chewing, heavy breathing, and foot tapping.
Triggering Stress
Lottie says: "I face so many different triggering sounds at Christmas and that can be anxiety inducing and make you want to avoid it.
"My relatives are aware, but I'm very aware that I don't want to upset others. It's like a internal conflict of managing my symptoms to ensure everyone else is happy."
So it's clear why the most wonderful time of the year can rapidly become a source of agony for affected individuals.
Sounds that may seem harmless, like someone drinking champagne, unwrapping gifts, or eating the holiday meal can provoke a powerful reaction that can even result in them skipping events entirely.
The student, a 21-year-old student, who has dealt with misophonia since aged 10, states her strategy is to listen to music to cope. Typically, she would frequently go in a quiet area to minimize problematic noises.
She says her condition is more pronounced around people she's most familiar with, so Christmas is always "challenging".
"People assume you to be around loved ones, and I want to, but it's physically and mentally challenging.
"It's like this uncontrollable anger washes 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 difficult and dramatic, but it's difficult to convey if you haven't felt it."
Several Strategies to Handle It
If it's an issue then there are some different techniques you can try to cope the situation, based on advice from specialists.
- Imagine Something Else: Imagination is key. Work on connecting the triggering sound causing distress with an unrelated image. So for example, try to imagine someone's slurping is just a sink draining water. By doing this is to retrain your mind that the sound triggering you is neutral.
- Make it a Game: Introduce playfulness and turn the annoying sound into a challenge with the culprit. As an example, if someone is crunching loudly attempt mimicking the sound. By joining in, instead of feeling like the sound is an attack, you become an willing part. And the challenge should help shift your attention and make you a little less affected.
- Develop a Narrative: One more method is to try to invent a reason about why the person making the noise is behaving that way. Imagine if someone was sniffing, maybe they are not feeling well or maybe they're upset. The idea is re-framing the context of the sound. While the noise remains identical, your reaction of it changes from being annoying, to feeling a slightly more compassionate towards it.
