The Holiday Season Can Be a Living Hell for Individuals Living with Sound Sensitivity.
A 23-year-old is looking forward to being with her family this Christmas, but says a key strategy she'll manage to get through it is by using her earplugs - notably for the main festive feast.
For the 23-year-old, this time of year can be a especially challenging time as the auditory triggers of people eating, sipping loudly and nose-blowing trigger extremely uncomfortable.
"I experience this feeling of immediate anxiety, my every muscle will just tighten and it as though I'm in danger, and I need to stop these triggers."
Lottie has experienced this condition from a young age and for her that makes the Christmas time "incredibly overwhelming".
Misophonia is a decreased threshold to certain sounds, especially noises made by other people.
It's surprisingly common in the UK. Experts found a significant portion of people are affected by it.
Typically it's noises connected to mouth, throat or facial movements that trigger a reaction, along with things like crunching, breathing, and repetitive finger tapping.
Triggering Stress
She explains: "You encounter so many different triggering sounds at the holidays and that can be daunting and make you fear it.
"My relatives are supportive, but I'm very aware that I don't want to make other people feel uncomfortable. It's like a internal conflict of managing my symptoms to ensure everyone else is happy."
So it's easy to understand why the traditionally happy time of the year can quickly turn into a stressful ordeal for sufferers.
Noises that may be considered normal, like someone drinking champagne, unwrapping gifts, or eating the holiday meal can cause a visceral feeling that can even result in them skipping events entirely.
She, a 21-year-old student, who has struggled with sound sensitivity since aged 10, states the approach she intends to use is to use headphones to cope. Typically, she would frequently go in a different room to minimize problematic noises.
She notes her misophonia is worse around people she's most familiar with, so Christmas is always "challenging".
"There is pressure to spend time with family, and I wish to, but it's exhausting on all levels.
"I feel as if this intense irritation takes hold, which can feel shameful, or I'll feel panicked and immediately start crying and then the stress response will activate.
"It may seem as if I'm being difficult and melodramatic, but it's difficult to convey unless you've experienced it."
Several Strategies to Cope
If it's an issue then there are a few methods you can attempt to manage the situation, based on advice from experts.
- Visualise Something Else: Mental imagery is crucial. Attempt to link the triggering sound causing distress with something completely different. As an illustration, try to imagine someone's noisy drinking is just a gentle stream. By doing this is to teach your brain that the sound affecting you isn't harmful.
- Use Humor: Introduce playfulness and turn the annoying sound into a game with the culprit. As an example, if someone is eating noisily try mimicking the sound. By mimicking, rather than feeling like the sound is an attack, you become an engaged person. And the competition element should help shift your attention and make you a little less affected.
- Create a Scenario: Another technique is to try to invent a reason about the reason someone creating the sound is behaving that way. Imagine if someone was sniffing, maybe they are not feeling well or could be emotional. The idea is re-framing the context of the sound. Although the sound stays the same, your reaction of it changes from being aggravating, to feeling a little more neutral about it.
