Misophonia! Community Group
Misophonia is an extreme hatred of certain sounds believed to be caused from abnormally strong connections between the autonomic and limbic systems in the brain. I have personally suffered from misophonia my whole life, so I know how hard it can be. Lets learn to be more at peace with it together please!
HOw do you get over it when the sounds bother you in the same way every time. I try to stick it outwhen I hear these noises..chewing..gulping..crunching but i literally feel like my blood might boil and I want to seriously scream, and usually i do, or plug my ears, or leave the room, or so something equally embarassing. I feel like a child and im 23. I have had this.. along with my twin sister ever since i can remember and we would be at the dinner table shooting eachother glances about the way my mom or brother ate. I feel so relieved to know that this has a name. I figured it out a year ago by finally searching online about it. Im fascinated by the disorder but does anyone know if this is being researched extensively or has anyone come up with any ways on how to overcome this. We all need to get together on this..HYPNOSIS? i need SOMETHING!!
anyway, many of the ways i've learned to deal with it over the years are, playing music while eating (if possible), dimming the dining room lights or eating by candlelight (if at home, because the visuals of people eating and getting food on their faces ramps up my miso), not looking at people while they eat, and, just like you, making faces at someone else - my son (who also has it, and so understands), to make us both laugh a little.
i also constantly remind myself that what other people are doing is not really their attempt to drive me crazy, and that the vast majority of people don't have misophonia, so have no idea how or why what they do freaks us out so much. in other words, it's MY problem, not theirs. and it's up to me to figure out how to deal with it.
and when you're somewhere, like at work or school where you can't control the environment as much, then a lot of people wear earphones and headphones that play something called "brown noise." there is also pink noise, and of course, white noise, and different people find different noises help them. there is at least one site that lets you listen to the different colors of noise to figure out which one you think might help you the most.
some people are getting neurofeedback, and are finding good results, but it is an incredibly expensive and long process. if you have the money, i guess it would be worth it.
a couple of people have found relief from some anti-depressant or anti-anxiety medication, but at least on the miso site, it seems not many do.
I believe you can learn to ignore a part of your problem but never the problem itself, you will never be "normal". Trying to cope with it without taking some precautions will just make you annoyed and it will distance you from everyone you love.