Misophonia

You probably never heard about Misophonia. I'll will explain everything about it in this article.

Misophonia is a condition of extreme sound sensitivity. It is characterized by an immediate, acute, negative emotional reaction to certain sounds. The triggers are everyday sounds like clipping nails, crinkling plastic bottles, heavy breathing, eating noises such as chewing, swallowing or crunching.
The reaction on that is often the fight or flight response. It creates panic and rage, some can explode emotionally and even physically.

The easiest way to relate, would be to imagine being trapped in a room with someone who is scratching their nails down a chalkboard and will not stop. Most people will have a powerful, negative reaction to this scenario… first a cringe, cover their ears… but if the noise persisted, soon they would flee or get angry and demand that the sound would stop.

I personally can't stand people that chew loudly and they often do it without shame. I first try to ask them to eat more quietly, but most of the time they don't get why. Then I try to flee and try to sit somwhere else. If I can't go sit somewhere else I get super nervous. If the person asks something at that moment, I'll probably snap at him.

The last bad experience was with my mom and dad.
We were all sitting together in the living room and I was talking with my mom. Then my dad went to the kitchen to get something to eat. He came back with a sausage. At that moment I had still my focus on talking with my mom. She suddenly started to ask numerous question about a topic I didn't like to talk about. Besides that my dad started to eat like he didn't eat for more than a week. He gobbled the sausage and chewed with an open mouth. Everything together made me explode. I stood up and walked away. It brought a lot of confusion. My mom thought I was angry with her and she felt bad. I felt bad to make her feel like that.

Everyone's misophonia is different.
Not everyone has the same triggers and is on the same level. Misophonia UK made a scale to guide clinicians and patients in assessing the severity of a sufferer's condition. Here it is:
(I usually go up to level 6).

Level 0
Person with misophonia hears a known trigger sound but feels no discomfort.
Level 1
Person with misophonia is aware of the presence of a known trigger person but feels no, or minimal, anticipatory anxiety.
Level 2
Known trigger sound elicits minimal psychic discomfort, irritation or annoyance. No symptoms of panic or fight or flight response.
Level 3
Person with misophonia feels increasing levels of psychic discomfort but does not engage in any physical response. Sufferer may be hyper-vigilant to audio-visual stimuli.
Level 4
Person with misophonia engages in a minimal physical response - non-confrontational coping behaviours, such as asking the trigger person to stop making the noise, discreetly covering one ear, or by calmly moving away from the noise. No panic or flight or flight symptoms exhibited.
Level 5
Person with misophonia adopts more confrontational coping mechanisms, such as overtly covering their ears, mimicking the trigger person, engaging in other echolalias, or displaying overt irritation.
Level 6
Person with misophonia experiences substantial psychic discomfort. Symptoms of panic, and a fight or flight response, begin to engage.
Level 7
Person with misophonia experiences substantial psychic discomfort. Increasing use (louder, more frequent) use of confrontational coping mechanisms. There may be unwanted sexual arousal. Sufferer may re-imagine the trigger sound and visual cues over and over again, sometimes for weeks, months or even years after the event.
Level 8
Person with misophonia experiences substantial psychic discomfort. Some violence ideation.
Level 9
Panic/rage reaction in full swing. Conscious decision not to use violence on trigger person. Actual flight from vicinity of noise and/or use of physical violence on an inanimate object. Panic, anger or severe irritation may be manifest in sufferer's demeanour.
Level 10
Actual use of physical violence on a person or animal (i.e., a household pet). Violence may be inflicted on self (self-harming).

The reactions from others
People that know about what I have often tell me "Don't be so intolerant", “just try to ignore it". They try to minimize things or some even mock with it by exaggerating the sound. Please do not do this. It makes everything worse for us. The best thing they can do for us is to do their best to stop the trigger they make. Asking what they can do to help means a lot as well.

Luckily there are those who support us do everything they can for us. It's always a relieve for me to be with such a person at lunchtime on the job or any place where you can't choose your environment.

Living with misophonia can bring a lot of harm towards your relationships with friends, family,... Some people get divorced, lose all their friends and even get isolated. A real treatment doesn't exist. Though L- Methylfolate, active B12, and a B12 complex can help. Facebook groups can be great to talk about your problems, learn how others handle their situations and receive support & strength.
Another thing to try is therapy. There are several ones that can help: Tinnitus Retraining Therapy (TRT),
Habituation Therapy,Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT), Hypnosis, ...

As you can see it's hard for outsiders to understand us. So this why I wrote this article. Not many people know about this, even doctors are having a hard time to find out what it is. I hope 'outsiders' will understand us better now.

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