Christmas Often Proves to Be a Terrifying Experience for Those with Misophonia.
Lottie anticipates seeing her relatives during the festive period, but admits one of the only ways she'll manage to get through it is by relying on her noise-cancelling devices - especially during Christmas dinner.
In her case, the holidays can be a especially challenging season as the sounds of people eating, sipping loudly and breathing heavily make her feel extremely uncomfortable.
"There's this wave of instant dread, my whole body will just freeze and it feels like I'm in a threatening situation, and I need to manage these triggers."
Lottie has lived with sound sensitivity from a young age and for her that causes the holiday period "incredibly overwhelming".
Misophonia is an intense sensitivity to specific noises, particularly those coming from individuals.
It is prevalent across the population. Researchers discovered almost one in five people are affected by it.
Often it's noises associated with mouth, throat or facial movements that trigger a reaction, as well as things like chewing, heavy breathing, and pen clicking.
'Anxiety Inducing'
The sufferer notes: "You encounter so many different triggering sounds at Christmas and that can be daunting and make you fear it.
"My family are aware, but I'm very conscious that I don't want to upset others. It's like a internal conflict of enduring my distress to make sure everyone else is happy."
So it's clear why the most wonderful time of the year can transform into a stressful ordeal for sufferers.
Sounds that may appear innocuous, like someone slurping a Buck's fizz, opening presents, or eating the holiday meal can cause a strong emotional response that can even cause them withdrawing from gatherings.
Jenna, a 21-year-old student, who has experienced sound sensitivity since aged 10, states the approach she intends to use is to use headphones to manage the meal. Typically, she would often retreat in a separate space to avoid distressing triggers.
She explains her misophonia is worse around people she's most comfortable with, so Christmas is always "challenging".
"People assume you to be around family, and I desire to, but it's draining.
"It's like this uncontrollable anger washes over me, which can feel embarrassing, or I'll feel anxious and begin to weep and then panic will take over.
"It may seem as if I'm being unreasonable and dramatic, but it's tough to describe without firsthand experience."
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 clinical psychologists.
- Visualise a Different Scenario: Imagination is crucial. Try to associate the particular sound affecting you with something completely different. So for example, try to imagine someone's noisy drinking is just a waterfall. By doing this is to teach your brain that the sound affecting you poses no threat.
- Try a Competition: Introduce playfulness and make the irritating noise into a challenge with the person. As an example, if someone is eating noisily attempt joining in. By mimicking, instead of feeling like the sound is an attack, you become an engaged person. And the game aspect should help distract your brain and make you a little less affected.
- Craft a Story: One more method is to try to invent a reason about the reason someone creating the sound is doing it. Imagine if someone was making a nasal sound, it could be that they're not at their best or could be emotional. The idea is re-framing the context of the sound. Even though the sound remains identical, your reaction of it shifts from being irritating, to feeling a little more neutral towards it.
