to ask about your misophonia struggles?

[awesomeauntie]

After seeing the feature on This Morning today about misophonia I just wanted to start a thread to hear other people's experiences and what they struggle with as it makes me feel better to know I'm not alone

The sound of feet tapping or nail biting sets me off, but my absolute biggest trigger is neighbour noise and specifically music. My ears tune into bass and low sounds and I can't hear anything else.

If my neighbour plays music with bass I honestly sometimes feel like I could smash up the house. I can't stop myself from going and standing in the room next to it to listen to it, it's like self torture and only makes me more age filled but I can't stop myself! Last summer someone at the other side of our estate was playing loud music with thumping bass for days on end. You could only hear it if you tuned into it but my ears automatically tuned into it and I couldn't stop, I was on edge every day waiting for it. I honestly nearly had a break down, the stress I felt in my head from it brought me to tears. It was awful and my partner just didn't understand, but I do understand why as even writing this out here I can see how odd it all sounds to people who don't have it.

After the feature today I've made a GP appointment to see if I can get referred for some kind of therapy - I need to try something as it's starting to control my life.

Teeth scraping on cutlery, any sort of crunching noise especially biscuits/crisps/cereal, slurping, loud breathing. I've been like it since I was a child. The sound of someone clattering a boiled sweet against their teeth would fill me with irrational rage.

Interestingly though I was also very musical as a child. I don't perform any more but I do still tend to pick up on a lot of different sounds in music and can 'picture' all the various parts of a song in my head. Musical sounds don't trigger me at all.

My youngest DC also has misophonia and is musical. It is something of a joke in our house that the two of us can't tolerate eating noise. Quite often if DH is eating biscuits etc he will tell us he's only got one left!

@vdbfamily I've just posted above but just also seen your post. Do you mind me asking, how your dc accessed this CBT - was it an NHS referral or is it private? I really want to help my dd(13) so it doesn't get any worse than it already is, and am waiting for a CAMHS response, but don't know how helpful they will be. Thanks.

Do you have any advice other than earphones?

Mindful meditation. CBT. Building up a tolerance to noise. Wax earplugs or other earplugs to help reduce noise.

My dog chewing his paws. Makes me stabby. I end up yelling at him to stop.
And yes, low base on loud music...makes me nauseous.

I get the rage when someone chews something sloppy with their mouth open. Problem is when I mention it everyone seems to do it even more because they find it funny DH chews gum in the car like a bloody cow and I actually start clenching my fists and turn the music up. I'm not too bad with crunchy sounds like crisps or apples, but bananas, gum or haribo and I'm on the verge of a meltdown!

@SuperbGorgonzola

In the Night Garden:

One pontypine
Two pontypine
Three pontypine
Four pontypine
Five pontypine
Six pontypine
Seven pontypine
Eight pontypine
Nine pontypine
Ten pontypine

All said in one breath. It makes me so uncomfortable. I can't watch it if those little fuckers appear.

This made me laugh so much, only surpassed by upsy bloody daisy singing!!!

It’s kind of reassuring that this is more common than I thought.

Mine is eating noises, especially apples, raw carrots and other crunchy foods. Toothpaste / denture adverts are a nightmare if I can’t find the remote to mute or pause. I could stab people who rustle sweets in the cinema.

People drinking from plastic bottles and crinkling the plastic sends me into an absolute rage.

Loud noise from neighbours. When my downstairs neighbour is on a promise she plays her one and only 90’s techno cd on repeat. From 5pm to past midnight. I hate those nights.

I also have the nose of a bloodhound and can smell weed at 100 paces. That is quite often when you live in my part of the NW (and when neighbours druggy sister visits)

I’m convinced I have undiagnosed ADHD. I used to scream a lot as a child and was put on medication for it (50 years ago), I also cried if a teacher had a loud voice and I still find it difficult to filter what I say sometimes.

My partner suffers from this, particularly with eating noises but more generally any sound out of his control. We generally eat whilst watching TV which helps, and I try not to take a bite if we're fast forwarding the adverts for example! I have this to a far far lesser degree, but only certain people, and luckily not my DP's eating (who I live with). My DB breathes quite loudly but I don't live with him of course so that's fine, and my old secretary eats very very loudly and sort of grazed all day long on crunchy fruit and nuts (I used to have to put headphones on) so lockdown was a bit of a blessing from that regard.

The most cancelling headphones I wear just cancel noise - I don't play anything through them unless I need white noise if there is lots of external sound.

@ThereOnceWasANote

There's a difference between being annoyed by a noise and having misophonia. The latter rules your life. It's hard to explain. Every time I go into my back garden, I get a knot in my stomach worrying about what I might hear out there. It's not logical. Kids playing? No problem. Lawn mowers and jet washers? That's fine. Music, even quietly, sends me into a rage. I know I am being unreasonable, but I just can't filter it out. I've moved house because of it. The stress it causes me is completely out of proportion with the reality.

This is completely right. My friend has ended relationships with otherwise lovely partners because she can't listen to them eat. But can listen to others. It's devastating

I can't deal with the sounds my dogs make when they're licking themselves clean, it genuinely infuriates me and makes me tearful. My DH doesn't understand it at all, can't fathom why it sends me into such a state but it's horrible

Water running from the tap. Actual pain.

People eating/slurping/crunching. Physically hurts my ears.

Don't think unless you've experienced it, you can fully appreciate it.