Misophonia

People with misophonia can often find personal relationships stressful and difficult as people close to them can often trigger the worst responses. Similarly sufferers can become socially isolated where an environment has known trigger sounds and they avoid people and places in an attempt to prevent experiencing their physical symptoms. The work place can be another difficult area in which there is usually no control over the trigger sound, this can result in distraction or could lead to a full blown panic attack which then becomes a challenge for the individual to do their job and indeed keep their job. The school environment can also be a challenge where long term anxiety can impact on the ability to learn and socialise.

It is not unusual for people with misophonia to keep the problem to themselves as sometimes others may taunt them with exaggerated offending noises, whilst others may try to lessen the issue with phrases such as “don’t let it get to you”, “just ignore it” or “don’t rise to it” and of course if sufferers could ignore it they obviously would.