Written Interview by Sipora Weissman, LCSW. July 2024

(Triggers named in this interview)

Hi Emanuel, thanks so much for answering my questions. We need more stories like yours in the Misophonia Community! Congratulations on your major success!

So, you had success doing Sequent Repatterning Therapy (SRT) with Morven Surmon. On a scale of 0-10 (0 no stress and 10 the worst stress), before you did SRT where were you on the stress scale with your misophonia reactions? And now, having completed the therapy, where are you on the stress scale?

10 before. 1 after.

Can you give some backstory to your misophonia? Do you remember when and how it started? When did you learn what misophonia was? Was there a specific person or thing that was most triggering to you?

I remember being about 10 years old, or younger, when I first experienced misophonia – of course I had no idea what it was at the time and no one would understand, so I bottled it all up and thought for many years that I was crazy, or something like that.

I think it started from growing up in a very restrictive family, with an abusive, alcoholic father, being confined by grandparents and forced to witness and take part in activities that I did not like or want to do. I believe that from all the restrictions and abuse, I developed this enormous hate and rage that I would bottle up inside of me and it would get activated by certain triggers (chewing noises, gulping noises, repetitive sounds, repetitive movement, tooth brushing noises, etc).

I discovered what it was only about 2 years ago and I was glad to learn that it had a name and I wasn’t the only one experiencing it.

Lately, my husband was my biggest trigger, because we spent more time together than I did with anyone else.

How did Misophonia impact your life? Were people understanding about your misophonia?

Growing up no one would understand and I’d often be told to get over it or move away from the triggers. I used to avoid certain people or situations in order to protect myself.

Once I learnt what it was and that it had a name, I started to explain to people around me and they would be more understanding, but by then the symptoms and reactions have gotten a lot for me worse too.

What kind of reaction did you have with misophonia? Some people feel anger, some anxiety, some disgust, etc. Some people also have a very physical reaction when they hear a sound.

My main reaction was anger and rage. My whole body would fill with anger and get very tense. Sometimes I’d get fast shallow breathing too.

Do you relate to having trauma or stressors when growing up or later in life?

Yes, as I explained above, I believe my childhood trauma caused me to develop misophonia.

What kinds of things did you try before doing SRT? Any specific therapy, coaching, medication, diet, or self-care techniques? Was anything helpful at all before SRT?

I tried meditation, CBT (cognitive behavioral therapy), taken CBD, but nothing helped until I tried SRT.

How did you learn about SRT?

I wanted to give therapy one more go, but this time I looked up therapists that had experience with misophonia and that’s how I found SRT website and from there found Morven.

I know that SRT is a mix of hypnotherapy and other techniques. Were there any specific parts of the therapy that you felt really helped the misophonia?

Yes, the Parts Work was particularly helpful for me. I also found the Anchor technique very useful at the beginning. (parts work done in the style of Internal Family Systems).

Was the change gradual over the course of the treatment or was it more sudden? Were you given any therapy homework?

The change was gradual, but fairly quick. Overall, the therapy was 10 sessions. From only the second session I began to see improvement in the symptoms.

The only homework was in the first few weeks, related to the Anchor technique and Parts Work.

How did you know the misophonia was gone?

When I heard noises that used to trigger me and noticed that there was no reaction within my body.

Like a reflex, I would expect a reaction, but nothing would happen, that’s when I knew that it was gone.

Do you feel you are a Highly Sensitive Person? Many people with misophonia relate to this.

Yes, I can relate to that too.

Is there anything else you feel set you up for success in working with Morven? (perhaps healthy lifestyle habits, coming to it with an open mind, feeling safe with and seen by Morven, safety in your current living situation and partner relationship, etc.)?

Before I reached out to Morven, I felt that my marriage was falling apart because my husband was my biggest trigger, I was suffering a lot internally and I just wanted something or someone to help me understand better and deal with these horrible reactions in my body. So I felt ready to try whatever it would take, and felt like I had nothing to lose.

I have approached a few other therapists, but I really wanted to work with someone who understood Misophonia and had experience with it. So when I met Morven I instantly felt comfortable and knew that it was a good fit.

What advice would you give to people who are struggling with misophonia?

Please don’t delay it any longer. There is help out there and I hope that they find what works for them.

—–

Emanuel worked with: Morven Surmon, BA(hons) Dip.C. Hyp NLP

Website: https://therapiesforchange.co.uk/

Interview and Write-up by Sara Bidler
Dec. 2023
Finding Freedom from Misophonia: Brooklyn Disch’s Story

Brooklyn Disch (she/they) endured severe misophonia for approximately 20 years, starting around the age of 7. She successfully cleared misophonia in February 2023 and is now dedicated to helping others find their way to freedom from this condition. She rates her misophonia at a 12 on a scale of 0 to 10 in severity before her breakthrough, with it now being at a 0.5. In describing their relationship to sounds/triggers now, Brooklyn notes “It’s not that there’s never a moment of annoyance with sounds, but (former) triggers no longer cause me to feel like I’m in danger or to feel disgust, anger, fear or anxiety. If I notice them, it doesn’t take me out of the moment. It’s just something I notice. Most of my previous triggers I don’t even notice at all.”

Their main misophonia triggers included whistling, throat clearing, S and T sounds. Classroom, home and work settings were challenging, and everyone triggered them with these sounds, remarking “If the person knew I had misophonia, it triggered me more because it felt like they should know better.”

Through a combination of various modalities including Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT), hypnotherapy, Rapid Resolution TherapyⓇ (RRT), meditation and Neuro-linguistic programming (NLP), she rewired her brain’s response to trigger sounds, with RRT being the most influential modality.

Brooklyn trained in these modalities originally for her coaching business and was also applying them to improve many aspects of their life. It was some time into practicing them that she thought to apply them to her experience with misophonia, noting: Then I had the realization that misophonia is a developed pattern, just like anything else. Our unconscious mind interprets a sound as danger, creates an emotion in us such as disgust/anger/fear to get us to take an action to eliminate “a threat” (that action can be putting in ear plugs, leaving the room, asking someone to stop, etc.) and the more the cycle continues the more we feed into this pattern, through no fault of our own. We’re just doing what the unconscious mind thinks we need to do to survive. But the more we feed into the pattern the stronger it becomes and the more intense our reactions get because these things are becoming encoded as more and more dangerous, and of course we’re developing more and more triggers at the same time.

Brooklyn did specific work on rewiring her brain’s response to triggers but she did not have to do work on each trigger individually for all of them to clear. In fact, the misophonia rewiring work helped with their fear of spiders (despite no conscious focus on this fear). Upon deeper contemplation, Brooklyn ponders whether the self-development efforts she undertook before discovering RRT established the groundwork for RRT’s effectiveness in addressing her misophonia. She feels none of it was a waste of time because “it’s all a learning experience.”

Here are some things that possibly set the stage for Brooklyn’s relief, in no particular order:

• 10+ years of psychotherapy (starting at age 15), which didn’t make a noticeable difference with misophonia but did give them a lot of life coping strategies and validation of her experience.

• Having a supportive parent: “My mom has been in my corner and is always an advocate.”

• Sertraline, which was prescribed to address Brooklyn’s generalized anxiety, as she was experiencing symptoms that mimicked multiple sclerosis.The sertraline didn’t help with misophonia, but did give Brooklyn a “better foundation” to then engage in the work to lessen misophonia severity.

• Strengthening family and other relationships; setting boundaries where needed.

• Switching from shaming herself when outcomes are less than ideal self-compassion and reflective learning.

• The use of EFT/Tapping to release emotions, including those experienced after being triggered by noises.

• Shifting their perspective about misophonia from, “Nothing will ever work; I’m stuck with this for the rest of my life” “I don’t deserve this, it isn’t my fault (or anyone’s fault) and also ”

• Anchoring into something bigger than herself and tapping into her intuition.

• Having an understanding partner and daily time free from triggers to reset and practice the skills they were learning, while also understanding that “avoiding trigger sounds all together wasn’t the answer because it reaffirmed in my mind that these things are dangerous.”

• Asking for help and being open to receiving new ideas.

• Journaling to their younger self and reflecting on whether the original function/belief of something still applied to their present-day life (this is along the lines of trauma work).

• Learning to advocate for herself.

• Clearing reservations about lessening their suffering from misophonia, which included possibly losing acceptance in the misophonia community and naysayers potentially saying, “See, I told you so, it wasn’t real.”She also faced the question, “Who am I without misophonia?”, as rage and frustration were her primary emotions most of her life. She used hypnotherapy to detach from the misophonia identity.

• Transitioning from being a “very pessimistic, depressed, and anxious” person being “an optimistic positive person”, which was kicked off by facing their fear of flying and traveling with strangers on their first ever solo abroad trip to Egypt. The trip helped her see how strong she really was: “It gave me a lot of my power back. I realized I can do it.” This experience empowered them and led to leaving an unsatisfying job to start their own company.

• Interrupting the thought spiral of, “Why is this person making this noise? Do they know how annoying this is, etc.?” which led to avoiding certain people based solely on the sounds they make. Replacing with a reminder that these thoughts aren’t serving her, and she can dismiss the thoughts and choose something different.

Because there seems to be a theme of people with misophonia being empathetic and/or highly
sensitive, here are Brooklyn’s responses to those questions:

Do you consider yourself a Highly Sensitive Person (HSP)?
“Growing up I was a highly sensitive person. My mom had to cut off the edges of my socks. I wouldn’t wear jeans until I was older. Those experiences came up in the work.” Brooklyn finds herself to be more aware of the energies and moods of others than the average person, noting, “I can walk into a room and tell something is off.” She considers herself a very spiritual person and being very in touch with energy and the things around her.

Do you consider yourself an empathic person?
When they took the Clifton Strengths Assessment (for which there are 34 themes), empathy was their #2 strength.
Their mom has always described Brooklyn as a very empathetic person. Now they’ve “learned how to turn it off” as needed. RRT was helpful to her in that, as they “talk about empathy a lot and when it’s helpful and when it’s not.”

In terms of maintenance efforts, Brooklyn reminds her mind that feeling calm and at ease
around noises that used to be triggering is safe to experience. She also mentioned that while
serving her clients, her mind is soaking up this rewiring work in the process.

Brooklyn’s story emphasizes the power of introspection, reprogramming, and a multifaceted
approach to healing, not only from misophonia but also from ingrained and problematic relational, cognitive and behavioral patterns. She now stands as inspiration, helping others navigate their paths to freedom from misophonia’s grip.

You can learn more about Brooklyn Disch and her coaching
services at www.brooklyndisch.com.

Brooklyn also hosts the Let’s Ditch Misophonia Podcast

Video interview by Sipora 2024. Moxie was in extreme distress from misophonia for many years. She now states she is free from misophonia. Time stamps are below.

Time Stamps:

00:01– Intro & Disclaimer

02:20– Life with misophonia

05:00– Looking for help and more backstory

09:00– Trauma and misophonia link

09:40– Highly Sensitive Person

11:40– More on trauma history

12:54– Miso reactions & Guilt & shame

14:50– Trying to find help

20:10– The BIG change…finding real help

32:15– This isn’t exposure therapy

35:00– Talking about memory reconsolidation/memories/ NLP

42:52– Instant change, or gradual?

48:00– Tapping on memories & Coherence Therapy

50:50– Getting thrown out of misophonia groups

01:00:00– EMDR and more on memory reconsolidation

01:07:00– Tips for people with misophonia &Other people free of miso and reactions from people not free

Transcript and interview by Kresta Dalrymple, LMFT

Paige can remember feeling “extreme sensitivity” to her surroundings from the age of 4. This experience that she later could identify as Misophonia was triggered by common noises found in the classroom, made by ear/nose/throat, household pets, eating, and visuals of hands and feet. Paige notes that while “every once in a while” a particular person would be a trigger, she more often dissociated from her “fierce, strong emotions” towards people and would become obsessive about the sound or motion so “it” would just happen to be triggering.

Lisa went from a level 10 in distress to a level 4 after an intensive therapy session. Time stamps are below.

Time Stamps:

00:00: Disclaimer & Lisa’s intro

02:50: Lisa discusses childhood

04:00: The start of Misophonia, in adulthood

07:30: Lisa’s response to the sound vs her husband’s response to the sound

08:30: More on how it all started and the reactions she was having

11:40: The journey with finding help

16:50: The therapy that finally moved the needle, a lot!

25:00: The immediate results

28:00: More on the therapy process

33:50: More progress and the topic of aloneness

38:30: Thoughts on Misophonia and trauma

46:30: Highly Sensitive Person

49:00: Nervous System Work

50:30: Tips for others with Misophonia

54:00: More thoughts on the therapy

55:45: What’s next on Lisa’s journey!

Written up by Kresta, 2024.

Starting at age 12 my family’s chewing noises drove me to tears from what — at the time – seemed to be an illogical, hard to describe sensation of extreme discomfort that felt like torture until the sound stopped. It would be another 15 years before I heard someone describe my experiences on a radio interview. I can remember the relief in knowing I wasn’t alone and that what I was experiencing had a name – Misophonia – or “Select Sound Sensitivity Syndrome”. The relief was short lived however. As I found and connected with others having the same experience, we started to look for some thread of commonality that would explain what was wrong–and then fix it. Time and again, our hypothesis were proven wrong–some had trauma, others did not, co-occurring conditions such as Autism, other sensory sensitivities, eating disorders, physical abnormalities in the ear and brain…no common thread was ever found. All that was left was the cold comfort that others were suffering in the same way and that “coping strategies” were the only option.

July 2024

Write-up by Sara Bidler

Finding Freedom from Misophonia – Sara’s Story (Triggers Named)

(For stories without triggers, please scroll to bottom)

I battled misophonia for 25 years, starting when I was twelve. It wasn’t until my mid-20s that I had a name for my struggle, and I’ve been free from it for over five years now. I was triggered by eating and other mouth sounds, oral sounds from animals, repetitive movements, and certain syllables. Those I spent a lot of time with triggered me most easily, though I could also be triggered by any person chewing gum and classmates snacking when I needed to focus on a test or lecture. Misophonia was most heightened with my partner of 19 years, followed by my parents and college roommates.

Before finding relief, I had anticipatory anxiety prior to entering situations where triggering might occur. Once in those settings, triggers were at the forefront of my mind. When triggering occurred, I would have a strong urge to get away from the trigger or to stop it. This was accompanied by intense anger or disgust, muscle tension, and uncomfortable body sensations, most typically the sensation of wanting to crawl out of my own skin. In essence, triggers would hijack both my mind and body.

Nowadays, I can be around those same triggers and trigger people without experiencing anything I just described. Ninety-five percent of the time, I don’t even notice my former triggers when they’re present. The only scenario where my brain can become focused on and my body somewhat activated by past triggers is when I find myself in a confined space (like a car), feeling stressed about something else (such as running late), and there’s no end in sight with the trigger (like with gum chewing). However, I approach it with agency and self-compassion, understanding my experience in the context of heightened mirroring (a genetic strength and challenge) and my lower brain trying to protect me.

The journey to this point wasn’t straightforward. Over the years, I sought help from various therapists and professionals. While most had never heard of misophonia, they did equip me with tools to manage and improve other aspects of my life—such as setting boundaries, practicing self-compassion, and learning relaxation techniques. Mindfulness meditation became a cornerstone of my daily routine, after taking Jon Kabat-Zinn’s 8-week Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction Course in my early 30’s. I explored different avenues—anti-anxiety medications, inner-ear white noise generators, even a rigorous vitamin regimen—but none cracked the code of misophonia. In 2017, I began Somatic Experiencing training. This three-year program helped me reconnect with my body, heal past traumas, and reclaim agency over my nervous system.

Leaving an unhealthy marriage was the final step toward liberating myself from misophonia. Because it was such a night-and-day experience, at first, it seemed to be “the reason” misophonia was no longer an issue for me. But over time, I came to see that the work I had done before that transition had laid the groundwork for this outcome.

Since then, I’ve maintained lifestyle habits—especially regular exercise, mindfulness practices, and prioritizing sleep—and continued therapy to ensure my nervous system remains balanced. Understanding myself as a Highly Sensitive Person (HSP) has reframed my experiences positively, fostering self-acceptance instead of shame.

For me, my intense struggle with misophonia seemed to be largely a manifestation of repressed emotions and unhealthy boundaries and, subsequently, an imbalanced nervous system. It was a catch-22; viewing myself as broken due to misophonia, I expected less in my relationships and didn’t feel I could justify setting certain boundaries, which then led to further nervous system dysregulation and heightened misophonia. Addressing these underlying issues meant my genetic tendencies no longer showed up in an extreme and debilitating form: misophonia.

=======

Learn more about Sara Bidler and her practice at authenticlivingts.com.

You can also listen to her interview on “The Misophonia Podcast” with Adeel Ahmad at

misophoniapodcast.com/episodes/s6e10-sara-lmft-sep.

Sara has a book coming out at the end of 2024/beginning of 2025 in which she will share her insights and strategies for finding freedom from misophonia in greater depth.

——–

Story No Triggers Named

I battled misophonia for 25 years, starting when I was twelve. It wasn’t until my mid-20s that I had a name for my struggle, and I’ve been free from it for over five years now. I was triggered by (triggers removed). Those I spent a lot of time with triggered me most easily, though I could also be triggered by any person (doing x) and classmates (doing y) when I needed to focus on a test or lecture. Misophonia was most heightened with my partner of 19 years, followed by my parents and college roommates.

Before finding relief, I had anticipatory anxiety prior to entering situations where triggering might occur. Once in those settings, triggers were at the forefront of my mind. When triggering occurred, I would have a strong urge to get away from the trigger or to stop it. This was accompanied by intense anger or disgust, muscle tension, and uncomfortable body sensations, most typically the sensation of wanting to crawl out of my own skin. In essence, triggers would hijack both my mind and body.

Nowadays, I can be around those same triggers and trigger people without experiencing anything I just described. Ninety-five percent of the time, I don’t even notice my former triggers when they’re present. The only scenario where my brain can become focused on and my body somewhat activated by past triggers is when I find myself in a confined space (like a car), feeling stressed about something else (such as running late), and there’s no end in sight with the trigger (example removed). However, I approach it with agency and self-compassion, understanding my experience in the context of heightened mirroring (a genetic strength and challenge) and my lower brain trying to protect me.

The journey to this point wasn’t straightforward. Over the years, I sought help from various therapists and professionals. While most had never heard of misophonia, they did equip me with tools to manage and improve other aspects of my life—such as setting boundaries, practicing self-compassion, and learning relaxation techniques. Mindfulness meditation became a cornerstone of my daily routine, after taking Jon Kabat-Zinn’s 8-week Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction Course in my early 30’s.

I explored different avenues—anti-anxiety medications, inner-ear white noise generators, even a rigorous vitamin regimen—but none cracked the code of misophonia. In 2017, I began Somatic Experiencing training. This three-year program helped me reconnect with my body, heal past traumas, and reclaim agency over my nervous system.

Leaving an unhealthy marriage was the final step toward liberating myself from misophonia. Because it was such a night-and-day experience, at first, it seemed to be “the reason” misophonia was no longer an issue for me. But over time, I came to see that the work I had done before that transition had laid the groundwork for this outcome.

Since then, I’ve maintained lifestyle habits—especially regular exercise, mindfulness practices, and prioritizing sleep—and continued therapy to ensure my nervous system remains balanced. Understanding myself as a Highly Sensitive Person (HSP) has reframed my experiences positively, fostering self-acceptance instead of shame.

For me, my intense struggle with misophonia seemed to be largely a manifestation of repressed emotions and unhealthy boundaries and, subsequently, an imbalanced nervous system. It was a catch-22; viewing myself as broken due to misophonia, I expected less in my relationships and didn’t feel I could justify setting certain boundaries, which then led to further nervous system dysregulation and heightened misophonia. Addressing these underlying issues meant my genetic tendencies no longer showed up in an extreme and debilitating form: misophonia.