The Holiday Season Often Proves to Be a Terrifying Experience for Individuals Living with Sound Sensitivity.
Lottie hopes for seeing her loved ones over the holidays, but admits a primary method she'll endure is by relying on her earplugs - notably for the main festive feast.
For the 23-year-old, the holidays is a notably tough period as the noises of people eating, slurping and nose-blowing make her feel extremely uncomfortable.
"I experience this feeling of immediate anxiety, my entire being will just freeze and it feels like I'm in peril, and I need to manage these triggers."
Lottie has experienced sound sensitivity for several years and for her that makes the festive season "exceptionally stressful".
Misophonia is a decreased threshold to certain sounds, especially noises produced by individuals.
It's surprisingly common across the population. Researchers found almost one in five people suffer from it.
Typically it's sounds connected to mouth, throat or facial movements that trigger a reaction, along with things like chewing, breathing, and foot tapping.
Triggering Stress
She explains: "You encounter so many different triggering sounds at Christmas and that can be daunting and make you dread it.
"My family are understanding, but I'm very mindful that I don't want to make other people feel uncomfortable. It's like a internal conflict of managing my symptoms to guarantee the event goes smoothly."
So it's obvious why the supposedly joyous time of the year can quickly turn into a living nightmare for sufferers.
Triggers that may seem harmless, like someone slurping a Buck's fizz, rustling a roll of wrapping paper, or eating the holiday meal can provoke a strong emotional response that can even result in them skipping events entirely.
Jenna, a young adult, who has experienced misophonia for over a decade, says her strategy is to listen to music to cope. On any other day, she would often retreat in a quiet area to avoid problematic noises.
She notes her condition is more intense around people she's most familiar with, so Christmas is always "challenging".
"There is pressure to socialize with family, and I want to, but it's draining.
"The sensation is this intense irritation comes over me, which can feel shameful, or I'll feel panicked and begin to weep and then the stress response will activate.
"To others it appears as if I'm being oversensitive and melodramatic, but it's hard to explain if you haven't felt it."
Several Strategies to Cope
If you suffer then there are a few methods you can try to cope the situation, according to clinical psychologists.
- Imagine Something Else: Mental imagery is crucial. Work on connecting the particular sound causing distress with something completely different. So for example, try to picture someone's noisy drinking is just a sink draining water. The goal is to teach your brain that the sound affecting you isn't harmful.
- Use Humor: Introduce playfulness and turn the annoying sound into a competition with the person. As an example, if someone is crunching loudly attempt copying the noise. By joining in, instead of feeling like the sound is unwanted, you become an active participant. And the challenge should help shift your attention and make you slightly more tolerant.
- Develop a Narrative: A further strategy is to try to invent a reason about the reason someone creating the sound is having to make that sound. For example if someone was making a nasal sound, maybe they are not feeling well or could be emotional. By doing this is altering the perception of the sound. Although the sound remains identical, your interpretation of it shifts from being annoying, to feeling a bit more accepting towards it.
