The Holiday Season Transforms Into a Nightmare for Individuals Living with Sound Sensitivity.
One young woman is looking forward to spending time with her relatives during the festive period, but notes a key strategy she'll endure is by wearing her earplugs - notably for the main festive feast.
For her, the holidays can be a particularly difficult period as the noises of people eating, drinking noisily and sniffling trigger profound anxiety.
"There's this feeling of sudden panic, my every muscle will just freeze and it feels like I'm in peril, and I need to stop these triggers."
Lottie has lived with misophonia since she was 16 and for her that makes the holiday period "deeply taxing".
Misophonia is a reduced tolerance to certain sounds, particularly those coming from those around you.
The condition is widespread in the UK. Experts discovered a significant portion of people are affected by it.
Often it's sounds associated with mouth, throat or facial movements that cause distress, as well as examples such as chewing, heavy breathing, and foot tapping.
'Anxiety Inducing'
The sufferer notes: "I face so many various auditory triggers at the holidays and that can be stressful and make you fear it.
"Those close to me 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 guarantee everyone else is happy."
So it's clear why the most wonderful time of the year can transform into a living nightmare for those with the condition.
Sounds that may be considered normal, like someone slurping a Buck's fizz, opening presents, or eating the holiday meal can provoke a strong emotional response that can even cause them skipping events entirely.
She, a 21-year-old student, who has struggled with sound sensitivity for over a decade, says the approach she intends to use is to use headphones to manage the meal. Usually, she would often retreat in a separate space to escape triggering sounds.
She says her misophonia is more intense around people she's most familiar with, so the holidays is always "difficult".
"People assume you to be around family, and I desire to, but it's physically and mentally challenging.
"It's like this intense irritation washes over me, which can feel shameful, or I'll feel anxious and begin to weep and then fight-or-flight will activate.
"To others it appears as if I'm being oversensitive and melodramatic, but it's difficult to convey unless you've experienced it."
Three Ways to Manage
If you suffer then there are some different techniques you can attempt to manage the situation, based on advice from clinical psychologists.
- Visualise Something Else: Mental imagery is key. Work on connecting the specific noise bothering you with a neutral concept. So for example, try to imagine someone's noisy drinking is just a sink draining water. By doing this is to retrain your mind that the sound triggering you isn't harmful.
- Make it a Game: Use lightheartedness and make the irritating noise into a challenge with the culprit. For example, if someone is crunching loudly attempt copying the noise. By mimicking, rather than feeling like the sound is unwanted, you become an engaged person. And the challenge should help redirect your focus and make you slightly more tolerant.
- Develop a Narrative: Another technique is to try to fabricate an explanation about why the person creating the sound is having to make that sound. Imagine if someone was making a nasal sound, it could be that they're not at their best or maybe they're upset. The idea is altering the perception of the sound. While the noise stays the same, your reaction of it shifts from being aggravating, to feeling a slightly more compassionate towards it.
