My Life with Misophonia

Hi! As I was reading your explanation, I was thinking of tellingyou to get headphones and to listen to music to try to cancel out the triggers. I hadn't imagined the sound of a fan would help, but now that you mention it I can see how it would. My first thought was 'a washing mashine would probably create the same effect!' but you probably don't walk around with a washing machine.

I think misophonia is one of many disorders (an unfortunately long list of them), alongside depression, anxiety, and sleep disorders that aren't recognized for how bad they really are, and how real they are. People often say to "just calm down" or "just sleep" or "just think positive" or to "just let it go, it's not a big deal", without understanding the impact it has on day to day activities rather than what would be considered a more serious issue, affecting them on longer periods of time. Having gone through depression myself, I see how your anxiety could have affected you. My main tool was concentrating on school; is there any way you could take part in an activity that would help with focusing on something to relieve you from your anxiety? In other matters, I do think you are one of the more extreme cases if you're triggered 5-20 times a day.

Might I ask, though, which sounds are triggers for you, to see the sort of context they take place in (inside, outside, in a crowd, in nature, watching TV), and the number of triggers you have? I'm sorry in advance if thinking of them makes you anxious and enraged. Which types of treatments have you tried? Is there any way you could avoid those triggers? Also, my last question: can you be triggered while asleep (outside noises or sounds in dreams)? I really hope your condition gets better eventually. You've inspired me to do more research on it. But I probably won't find anything you haven't already seen.

Hearing aside, how are your family/friend relationships, from when your misophonia started, to when you told them what it was? I'm sad to hear that your friend reacted in such a way after you told her. Maybe you could help clear some misconceptions? The questions I asked may not be the first ones everyone asks, but explaining those things to the people around you could certainly help them to meet with you in places without triggers, to do activities with the least possible triggers, or to know what's happening when you can't carry out your conversation. I think they'll be more inclined to adapt to your needs if you explain how it affects you.

I hope your situation gets better!

I missed your response until today. I am on break from the site, and thought I would just answer from my member account instead =)

is there any way you could take part in an activity that would help with focusing on something to relieve you from your anxiety? Unfortunately, there is no activity that has been able to help me shift my focus. once the sound is triggering me, that is the only thing I hear/notice until the trigger is gone.

Might I ask, though, which sounds are triggers for you, to see the sort of context they take place in (inside, outside, in a crowd, in nature, watching TV), and the number of triggers you have? Unfortunately, my triggers are everywhere, including my own home. places I know I will be triggered at such as movie theaters, I will typically avoid. My list of triggers is actually quite extensive. so I will include that at the end of my answer. I am also unfortunately visually triggered as well.Which types of treatments have you tried? I have tried (I don't remember what the official name for it is) where you try to desentitize yourself to the noise by listening to one of the offending noises for just a few seconds and building up, so you can hold off the reaction longer. this actually backfired on me, and rather than help, I only became more triggered by the noise.Is there any way you could avoid those triggers? Unfortunately, this too is a no. these sounds that are triggering are present no matter where you go.Also, my last question: can you be triggered while asleep (outside noises or sounds in dreams)?I am a extremely light sleeper, so in order to fall asleep and stay asleep, I have to have a fan running in my room. I have been triggered though in my sleep, dreaming of the offending noises :/ but fortunately, that is a rare occurrence.

Hearing aside, how are your family/friend relationships, from when your misophonia started, to when you told them what it was? Aside from the one friend, I have only told one other person in my actual life outside of the web. That was my aunt, and she acted like she was skeptical of it. I have parents that think ADD, ADHD, and diagnoses such as those are made up. Imagine trying to explain something far less known about to people who are already skeptical of doctors and diagnoses.I'm sad to hear that your friend reacted in such a way after you told her. Maybe you could help clear some misconceptions?Well, I am not sure exactly what you mean by the misconceptions. My friend and many people like her think this is a bogus diagnosis. They have no ability to understand it, because they have nothing to compare it to. They think we are over-reacting, or making stuff up. This is a real issue, not just for me, but for the thousands of other people who have this. Research has pointed towards this being a neurological disorder, similar to that of hypercusis, which is a sound sensitivitydisorder in which ordinary sounds seem much louder to a person. If research is right and this is a neurological disorder, then people shouldn't be so quick point to anti-depressant drugs and such as answer to this as well. Also, in order to be diagnosed with this disorder, you see a hearing specialist, not a psychiatric doctor.

My triggers:

*bodily noises, including but not limited to: sneezing, coughing, heavy breathing, snoring, grunting, wheezing, teeth grinding, etc

*eating noise, including but not limited to: chewing, slurping, crunching, smacking gum, or certain food, ice cubes, chips, carrots, bananas.i can't stand it

*animals, licking themselves, squeaking toys (mine loves to, i love her, but omg, does she drive me nuts at times) her cruching food or lapping water.

*electronical noises such as beeping, ticking, whirling, high pitched buzzing noises (like from old tvs) or certain games of my fiance's, have certain noises I can't stand

*random, dripping water, water running like in a toilet, thumping, people clicking pens,tapping, some people's voices, and certain types of music (I am not exactly sure why) but I can't stand jazz music or country music. I hate gospel music and hymns too for as long as I can remember. I have always been extremely picky with the music i liked

That is just a very basic list. There are a lot of stuff that triggers me. As I mentioned before, i carry headphones where ever i got, and a spare charger incase my kill my phone battery from constant use lol.

I jus found out about this order when searching online why I hate when my dad eats.... He is a open mouth chewer plus drags his utensils all over his plate to get every last scrap of food and it bothers the shit out of me.... How do I work with this condition because it makes it where I don't want to spend time with my parents because we usually have free time around dinner time so this goes on all the time.... Plus he drags his feet all over the place when he walked and that too makes me want to freakin scream to the top of my lungs for him to shut up

I can totally relate to this. ... Children shrieking sends me into an anxiety attack where I look for a way to escape. The screeching whirling noise of my air conditioner has woken me up in a rage more times than I care to admit. I have a lot of triggers I'm not going to list. But it's almost like my nervous system just overloads. It's a horrible feeling and like all my nerves have just fried at once.

Hi, OMG I need help:) I have misophonia , everyone thinks I'm crazy. yesterday at the grocery store, this lady was snapping her gum, I wanted to slice her face off, I tried to go to the other end of the store, but i could still hear it, I was shaking , enraged, I really wanted to do physical harm to her, and this is the part that I don't quite understand, I wanted her to know that she was disgusting

Chewing is the worst, my mother in law with her thin little inbred redneck mouth taking little bird bites and smack, smack, smack, I want her dead while she is doing this, I am not kidding. I have to leave with some excuse because of course I can't say, "if I don't leave now I am going to gut you like a pig

when I was a child and going to sleep, the crickets outside would enrage me, even closing the windows I could still hear them, I would put a pillow over my head and just cry, but here is good news and very strange, I love to hear crickets at night now, but that's the only sound I have gotten over

snoring... dont get me started, I have not "slept" with my husband after the first year when I had to pretend not to want to pound his face into the headboard and stab him repeatedly in his face

All this being said I am a very easygoing person, with really no other anger issues at all, and I am a violinist, which I guess having perfect pitch may have something to do with my alarming sensitivity to other noises

I think I just wanted to vent, and if just one person understood and didn't think I was a complete lunatic, thanks for listening

Hello, I have level 9 misophonia, and have had a lot of problems because of it. Hearing my triggers, sometimes even just seeing them, makes me cry and/or scream. I tried earplugs, but I can still hear everything, so I pushed them to hard, and got pain in my ears. The same with headphones. I can hear everything. The worst is that I start hating the people who trigger me... I had it since always, and it keeps worsening. So, I went to the psychiatrist, and she told me: "Don't expect others to adjust to you and just get over it". I felt so judged. :( She clearly didn't believe me. I guess she was just not educated enough, since it's just been discovered.

Might I suggest speaking to a doctor about Lexapro? I don't have misophonia and don't know what it's like, but I do have panic disorder and have frequent panic attacks with no known trigger. Lexapro helped damper my anxiety to the point where it was tolerable, and also curbed my temper. I too have a hard time focusing on things when I have anxiety and have gone for several months in a constant anxious state. Lexapro helped tremendously.

Hello.

I have Misophonia too. This disability looks like not effective from outside but it is. It pushes me away from my friends, my family and everything makes triggering sounds. I can't get out of my room without headphones. I can't stand of my father's breathing so my realtionship with him is over. I really don't know what to do. He doesn't understand why I am acting so weird these days so he's kinda angry to me. I don't want to be alone like this.

If you know any self-help tactics please let me know :(

I also have misophonia!!!

Best bluetooth, noise cancelling, headphones: Hi all, my boyfriend suffers from misophonia and I want to get him awesome headphones that he can use with his phone, tablet, etc... as well as noise cancelling. SUGGESTIONS? Thank you!