Category:

Coping

Take a Leap

Very recently, I realized how afraid/anxious I am of certain things:

Driving
Making mistakes
Getting yelled at

And it wasn’t until yesterday (November 5, 2018) that I am allowing those things to hold me back from progressing in life. Hilariously enough, it hasn’t been my misophonia. Not really. Yes, it’s hindering and I can’t do certain things–at all or not for long/very often–but I find myself focusing on other things that have been hindering me.

For instance, driving. I am avoiding learning how like the plague. I don’t want to hurt anyone, or God forbid kill anyone, or experience someone else hurting me (or whoever else that might be in the car with me). It makes me terribly anxious, and I don’t want other people that might be teaching me getting mad at me for not doing something correctly.

Whew. Just writing that makes me anxious.

And lastly, I don’t want to drive because I don’t know how I’ll react to hearing a trigger sound in the car. Will I jerk the wheel? Will I drive more recklessly to get to my destination faster so I can escape? So, misophonia does play a part in this, but not so much in the other things. Misophonia is ever present, but I’ve experienced it at a lesser degree in most areas of my life.

I joined a group at my local church, and I won’t bore you with the details, but basically we dissect certain scripture readings and apply them to our own life. We also look at certain passages we don’t understand and figure out what it means. But we were talking about faith, and I don’t remember what led me to think of my driving anxiety, but I thought about it and someone said, “Take a leap of faith.”

A leap of faith. Huh.

I started remembering all the times I went to a social gathering or other event despite my brain telling me not to because I might get triggered. Those were leaps of faith. Huge ones. It’s because of those that I think I’m better able to manage my misophonia. I say manage because I’ve stopped trying to fight it, because that’s a losing battle. I still get frustrated of course. I still have my really bad days where the only thing I’m feeling is rage, anger and wanting to hide in a soundproof hole for eternity. But after those moments, I dust myself off (after some recovery) and get back out there.

And with the driving, that’s what I need to do. Take a leap of faith. And no matter how many times I get anxious, or if someone’s teaching me and they make me more anxious by doing something that sets me off, I dust myself off and try again. I should learn from that experience and the next time I get in the car, try something that would cause me less stress/anxiety. Maybe get a new teacher. Someone that is empowering and won’t get mad at me for making mistakes. Someone that will tell me what I did wrong and how to fix them without getting mad. Someone that understands I have misophonia and can try to be as accommodating as possible.

If I don’t take that leap of faith, I’ll be denying myself so many job opportunities. As a criminal justice major, there are a lot of jobs in that field that require me to drive. Even if I didn’t have my degree, many other jobs require that I have a driver’s license. I’ve looked at many jobs I’m qualified for and become disheartened when I see I need to drive. You get my point. It’s incredibly frustrating for me, and as afraid as I am, I need to overcome it. Manage it. Just like I do with my misophonia everyday.

There are a lot of other things I won’t be able to do if I can’t drive, as well as things I will be able to do once I can: If I can’t drive, I won’t be able to go anywhere on my own. I won’t be able to leave a potentially anxiety-inducing event whenever I want. But if I can, I won’t have to bother anyone to give me a ride. I could also drive alone. I could set my own “car rules”, like no eating in the car and no radio.

There are good things about driving. I am capable of it. I just need to focus on the good things and just…take that leap.

November 7, 2018 3 comments

Coping Sensory Diet

Trampolines and Sensory Processing Disorder

written by Elizabeth

Whether or not misophonia is related to SPD requires more research for definitive answers. However, OTs speculate that a sensory diet, and therefore vestibular input, could be helpful for misophonia sufferers.

SPD, or Sensory Processing Disorder, is a neurophysiological condition in which sensory input from one’s environment or one’s own body is received or interpreted poorly and thus results in inappropriate responses. This condition can affect anyone. It is estimated that 5-16% of children show signs of SPD. Toddlers, adolescents, teens, and adults with SPD struggle with vestibular input. They often seek activities and movement that exercise the vestibular system so as to “feed” their sensory diet and stimulate their inner ear.

An exercise that a lot of children find very stimulating is jumping on the trampoline. This kind of exercise not only benefits those with SPD physically by strengthening muscles and joints, but it has shown to improve social skills in group jumping exercises as well. Because jumping is more than just a one motion, children and adults are given the opportunity to exercise moving patterns and work on praxis challenges. This, in turn, will improve their balance, gross motor coordination, and trunk endurance.

Trampolines help children to understand and fully feel where their bodies are in space. Smaller trampolines especially give a sense of personal space and freedom to use that space how they choose without external disruption, much like their own personal island. This awareness of personal space can boost self-confidence and improve their overall social health. Jumping can also have calming affects for a child who is overly upset or angry. Repetitive motions are often very soothing and by honing their attention towards jumping, an opportunity arises for them to step away from negative emotions and relax.

Organized sports such as kickball or tag, for example, can sometimes be an overload or even not stimulating enough for children with Sensory Processing Disorder. It is typical for persons with SPD to be unmotivated to play those sorts of games. This is where trampoline’s shine. Children can express themselves freely in the comfort and safety of their aforementioned personal islands. They do as they please, move how they want, on their oases.

Trampolines are an excellent outdoor and in-home activity. Small, personal trampolines can be purchased to easily fit in any home or apartment. Owning an indoor trampoline negates the issue of bad weather so that children can jump all year long. Some trampolines are even made with bungee cords instead of metal springs. Bungee trampolines are relatively silent and much less disruptive. In this case, noise becomes less of a factor and early morning or late night jumping is no longer a problem. Morning jumping, especially, has been found to provoke so much mental stimulation and arousal that children and adults with SPD are able to maintain more focus later in the day because of it.

Any safe activity that a child finds fun and engaging is going to benefit them in some way, whether it’s physically, socially, or mentally. Trampolines have so many great benefits. They strengthen muscles and joints, improve balance and coordination, and provide an outlet for emotions. Most importantly, trampolines can provide a sense of comfort and a source of fun and stimulation for children of all ages with SPD.

November 5, 2018 0 comment

Coping

Finding The Best Coping Strategies For Your Misophonia

written by Alexandra Killworth

Everyone is different, as we all know. Everyone experiences things differently, including mental, physical and psychological illnesses. This is perfectly fine and natural, but as a result, finding a coping method for a specific problem can be difficult. Many people try to give a “one size fits all” solution, which simply doesn’t exist. So when it comes to misophonia, one of the most important things is to try and find a group of coping strategies that help you, even if they may not help other people.

I like to group these strategies into two particular groups; passive and active. Passive strategies are the methods that usually involve just dealing with the triggers, just coping with it at the time, whereas active strategies are the methods that deal with the source of the trigger and actively try to get rid of it. Both are completely okay, neither is better than the other.

Passive Strategies

Wearing noise-cancelling headphones
Wearing earplugs
Fidget toys to release nervous energy (cubes, spinners, etc)
Wearing earphones
Listening to classical/calming music
Breathing exercises

Active Strategies

Going out of the room you’re in
Staying on top of general stress
Exercise
Moving to a quieter area
Requesting certain aids at school/work
Asking the person making the trigger to stop

Obviously, these are a big variety of coping methods, so that’s why it’s important to find the ones that best help you. In order to do so, you need to ask yourself certain questions and keep a record of important aspects.

Firstly, keep a record (perhaps in a diary or journal) of your triggers and where you’re most likely to experience them. For example, if a trigger is chewing noises, note that down along with “kitchen” or “dining room” or wherever you commonly hear it. Next is considering already existing health problems, both mental and physical. For example, if you’re on crutches or a wheelchair most of the time due to a disability, you need to realise you may not always be able to just leave the room. Or if you have social anxiety, you may be unable to ask the person to stop or leave the room too. If you have any sort of anger issues, you may need to avoid confrontation in case of a violent response to the trigger. Some people can’t use earplugs because they irritate existing tinnitus. Take existing problems into consideration to cross out any coping methods that won’t help you.

Finally, use the methods you have left and just experiment. Some are more accessible than others, such as wearing earphones, whereas noise-cancelling headphones are relatively expensive. It’s important to also note which ones do help. If you try out some fidget toys and they help release nervous energy, keep them with you when you know you may be exposed to triggers. It may be useful to create a small pack to take with you, which may include cards with phrases such as “Please excuse me, I need to leave the room” or “Please stop making that noise” if you can’t speak or are too anxious to speak, any objects that you can fidget and fiddle with, earplugs or earphones with perhaps your phone or an MP3 player, and maybe even a bottle of water; after all, when you’re nervous, you can become dehydrated.

In conclusion, record important things and take action. Experiment to find out what best suits you and create a personalised coping system.

November 4, 2018 0 comment

Coping Treatment

Marijuana For Misophonia

written by Shaylynn H.

One of the most asked questions about misophonia that I’ve seen has been whether or not marijuana, or weed, can help sufferers with misophonia. I’ll start this article by letting people know that I am Canadian. Weed was legalized here officially, for recreational use, on October 17th. In the past week I tried sativa, indica, and hybrid strains. I’d like to first mention that there is no scientific evidence that weed can help misophonia patients. You should not try a treatment that has not been tested. However, if you live somewhere that weed has been legalized (or your doctor believes it could have benefits), you might want to read this article first.

In my experience, marijuana does not help alleviate misophonia symptoms.

When I smoke (or ingest marijuana through edibles) I still hear and see triggers. I am still anxious about them, and I still have the “trigger” response. Sometimes I will recover faster, but in some instances I found that weed made the triggers worse. I am still thinking of one of the triggers that happened almost a week ago. I found that weed made me focus a little too much on triggers and I can say that even in the best case scenario, weed was not making my triggers better.

You should never take a substance for a disorder or test without talking to your doctor. While there currently is no research on how marijuana will impact misophonia, we may see more research come forward about anxiety. For myself, misophonia has not shown any impact on misophonia other than having triggers be more noticeable or being slightly less anxious.

Coping with misophonia is about more than just taking a substance. Until research finds a treatment we are going to have to look at a plethora of coping mechanisms. Instead of trying substances, I recommend that sufferers look into coping tips and sensory diets.

I am by no means demonizing marijuana or coming from a place where I believe that the substance is all bad, however, there is just no research (or any evidence beyond some anecdotal accounts) that weed is going to be a treatment for misophonia. While this may be disheartening for some sufferers, I think we should instead focus on the research that is happening and help spread the word that science is gaining an understanding of misophonia.

October 29, 2018 0 comment

Coping

6 Misophonia Tips For Traveling

written by Lara

You probably know how it is, when you sit in the train or car and suddenly you can’t find your earphones in your bag and you remember you forgot them charging at home. Everything starts to tingle in your body, you start to focus on the people in your surrounding. You just wanna reach to the destination or just step out.

So first of all I am conscious that everything becomes worse, when I am hungry, sleepy, stressed or thirsty. When my brain is tired, I will be more open for experiencing any trigger more severe. My brain turns its alarm system on. That is the cue process in my brain, so that I start to be in a fight or flight mode and I need some strategies to get over it:

So now my coping methods:

listening to interesting podcasts, which are taking my awareness to understand the subject
writing for the website, so I am focusing on other stuff rather than on my surrounding
listening to relaxing music while reading a book
focusing on my respiratory system: using the diaphragm = reducing the heart rate while breathing deeply
having enough to eat and drink
eating slow and focusing on digesting

I figured out that since I am more into this subject I am suffering a little bit more because I do analyze my surrounding and I talk to friends and try to explain to them the problems I have with them or others. But on the other side I figured out that I can cope much better and deal with myself and my family. I am able to sit with my main trigger (my dad eating) at the table and enjoy the meals most of the times with my family. I also know that everyone needs different methods, so try out anything you could probably imagine and you will find your coping methods to help yourself.

October 15, 2018 0 comment

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