The Holiday Season Often Proves to Be a Terrifying Experience for Individuals Living with Sound Sensitivity.
One young woman anticipates seeing her loved ones during the festive period, but notes a key strategy she'll endure is by relying on her earplugs - notably for the holiday meal.
For the 23-year-old, Christmas is a especially challenging season as the noises of family members munching, slurping and nose-blowing trigger extremely uncomfortable.
"I experience this sensation of immediate anxiety, my every muscle will just tighten and it as though I'm in peril, and I need to stop these sounds."
The individual has suffered from misophonia from a young age and for her that causes the festive season "incredibly overwhelming".
Misophonia is a decreased threshold to particular auditory triggers, especially noises made by those around you.
The condition is widespread amongst adults. Experts found almost one in five people are affected by it.
Frequently it's noises connected to eating or drinking that cause distress, including things like chewing, breathing, and pen clicking.
'Anxiety Inducing'
She explains: "I face so many assorted problematic noises at the holidays and that can be anxiety inducing and make you dread it.
"My family are supportive, but I'm very aware that I don't want to make other people feel uncomfortable. It's like a really big battle of managing my symptoms to make sure everyone else is happy."
So it's clear why the supposedly joyous season can transform into a stressful ordeal for those with the condition.
Noises that may seem harmless, like someone drinking champagne, rustling a roll of wrapping paper, or eating the holiday meal can trigger a powerful reaction that can even result in them withdrawing from gatherings.
She, a university student, who has struggled with misophonia for over a decade, says the approach she intends to use is to listen to music to get through dinner. On any other day, she would usually isolate herself in a separate space to minimize triggering sounds.
She explains her misophonia is more intense around people she's most comfortable with, so the holidays is always "difficult".
"People assume you to be around family, and I wish to, but it's draining.
"I feel as if this sudden rage comes over me, which can feel shameful, or I'll feel panicked and immediately start crying and then panic will activate.
"To others it appears as if I'm being difficult and overreacting, but it's difficult to convey without firsthand experience."
A Few Techniques to Handle It
If it's an issue then there are various strategies you can use to handle the situation, as suggested by clinical psychologists.
- Picture Something Else: Imagination is essential. Attempt to link the triggering sound bothering you with a neutral concept. For instance, try to imagine someone's noisy drinking is just a sink draining water. The goal is to help your brain learn that the sound affecting you isn't harmful.
- Use Humor: Introduce playfulness and make the irritating noise into a challenge involving the source. As an example, if someone is crunching loudly have a go at joining in. Through participation, instead of feeling like the sound is unwanted, you become an engaged person. And the competition element should help shift your attention and make you a little less affected.
- Create a Scenario: A further strategy is to try to create a little story about the reason someone creating the sound is doing it. For example if someone was making a nasal sound, it could be that they're not feeling well or are troubled. The idea is altering the perception of the sound. Although the noise remains identical, your understanding of it shifts from being aggravating, to feeling a slightly more compassionate towards it.
