Have You Been Searching For Misophonia Treatment?

 

Do certain sounds make you angry, anxious, disgusted, or wanting to escape? Are these sounds repetitive, low level, or possibly coming from a loved one? Also, do family members or friends think you are overreacting, being overly emotional, too sensitive?

Unfortunately, most people have no idea what Misophonia is and when they do learn about it, they definitely cannot comprehend it. Sadly, many mental health providers do not know what Misophonia is. They often send sufferers to a cognitive behavioral therapist for exposure therapy. It should be noted, exposure therapy does not work in Misophonia treatment. Misophonia is a selective sound sensitivity and while there is no official therapy for Misophonia, many things can help.

 

Common Misophonia Triggers:

Chewing

Slurping

Breathing

Tapping

Nail Clipping

Bass through walls

Snoring

Upstairs footsteps

Mouse Clicks

Ticking Clocks

Visual Triggers

Many People Struggle With Misophonia

Misophonia was thought to be a rare disorder, but as it’s becoming well more known, more people are sharing their personal struggles. Women seem to report Misophonia more than men. But, the male to female ratio is not officially known. Misophonia usually appears around the preteen/teen years but can occur later on in life. It often begins in the home in reaction to a parent or other family member, but can also begin from a traumatic event. Also, Misophonia can run in families. If you are struggling with Misophonia, you might have a family member struggling too. Lastly, while most people with Misophonia have auditory triggers, some people also have visual triggers. Repetitive visual triggers are called Misokinesia. An example of this is someone shaking their leg or foot repeatedly. 

Working with a Misophonia therapist can help.

 

Misophonia Science

While there has not been a lot of past Misophonia research, current research is showing to be quite exciting. Mainly, Misophonia creates heightened autonomic nervous system arousal with a resulting negative emotional reactivity. The amygdala (brain’s alarm) sets off the flight/fight/freeze reaction which then creates panic, anger, rage, or disgust in a person. Undoubtably, that person will probably flee the scene. Basically, telling a person with Misophonia that “these sounds can’t harm you” or “calm down” doesn’t work because the brain reaction happens in milliseconds.

Kumar, et al. found that the anterior insula in the brain has shown to be hyperactive when someone with Misophonia witnesses a trigger. The insula has also shown to be abnormally connected to other parts of the brain like the amygdala and hippocampus. One of the more recent studies have shown that people with Misophonia possibly have hyper activation of the mirror neuron system. Mirror neurons fire in a person’s brain when they see another person doing something. Simply put, if the person with Misophonia sees someone chewing, mirror neurons in their own brain light up as if they are actually chewing.

 

How I Provide Misophonia Treatment

Misophonia is a complex issue. As a Misophonia therapist, when providing treatment, I do my best to tailor the treatment to the individual client. There is no official Misophonia Treatment. But, there are treatments that have been proving to help people. Overall, I use a multi-disciplined approach to treating misophonia.  

I generally focus on three components when treating Misophonia. These are: Nervous system regulation, memory reconsolidation, and cognitive techniques.

Nervous System Regulation

Many people with misophonia identify as Highly Sensitive People. While this is not a diagnosis, it is a personality type. Highly Sensitive People (HSP) take in more of their environment, they sense the subtle. They also get a lot more overwhelmed than non-HSPs.

Other reflections I’ve noticed with people who have misophonia are that they can put a lot of pressure on themselves for work or school. Constant pressures do leave the mind-body in a sympathetic state which increases dysregulation…which makes misophonia worse. There have even been ideas that people with Misophonia may be hard on themselves, have perfectionist qualities, or come from rigid families. I discuss all of these ideas with my clients.

Trauma histories sometimes come a long with misophonia. Trauma primes the brain to always be scanning the environment for danger.

Therefore, I teach nervous system education and tools to support my clients. I teach techniques to calm down an overactive nervous system. 

Memory Reconsolidation 

I have trained in multiple therapies that explore the belief system linked to the misophonia, and then hopefully help the brain to update and unlearn the response, via memory reconsolidation.  

Some of the therapies I have trained in are Sequent Repatterning Therapy, Internal Family Systems, EMDR, and Coherence Therapy. I mainly use Coherence Therapy as it is a modality specifically created to bring about memory reconsolidation. Memory reconsolidation is the brain’s built in process and mechanism for revising what was previously learned and now held in memory. 

 

More About How I Provide Misophonia Therapy

I am influenced by the work of Amsterdam UMC and Duke University. They have done extensive work in the study of Misophonia. Also,  I am influenced by the counter-conditioning techniques of Tom Dozier and the techniques of Dr. Ezra Cowan’s EASE therapy for Misophonia. Additionally, I use techniques from Acceptance & Commitment Therapy, Emotional Freedom Technique (Tapping), Somatic Experiencing, and mindfulness. 

Because many people are triggered by specific people in their family, I look at family dynamics and any home stressors that may be happening. Additionally, I screen for a trauma history and treat that accordingly. In a small study, EMDR was shown to be helpful for Misophonia. To see how I work with trauma please click HERE. I also am newly trained in Deep Brain Reorienting. 

Why I Became Interested in Misophonia Treatment

As a kid growing up on Long Island New York, my father would be driven crazy by that little squeak or clicking noise coming from a mysterious place in the car. Also, I was told that his father, my grandfather, was very similar with the “car noise” annoyances. While I wasn’t bothered by the classic Misophonia trigger noises as a kid (chewing, sniffling, etc), I had very sensitive hearing. I could hear faint snoring coming from across the hall when I slept. Additionaly, if I had to sleep in the same room with someone and I heard their breathing noises, I couldn’t sleep. Also, ticking clocks definitely had to be left out of my room. Overall, I used earplugs for sleep at a very young age.

Fast forward to college, my next door dorm neighbor would keep me up every night playing loud music. Basically, this  made me very anxious and I eventually had to leave the University. This is when my sound sensitivity got worse.  After this traumatic event, throughout my adult life, any neighbor noises in apartments would make me anxious. In my 20’s and early 30’s I saw numerous therapists that had no clue how to help me. My best advice was- “Sipora, you probably can’t live in apartments”. Unfortunately, that advice wasn’t great for a young adult living and working in New York City. Eventually, after some research, I had learned about the word Misophonia and I finally felt very validated.

In my mid-30s when I was living in Los Angeles California, I decided to look into my sound sensitivity a bit more. I found some interesting people working in Misophonia Treatment.  But it wasn’t until I finally moved to Ojai California when I decided to make Misophonia treatment part of my therapy practice. 

 

Misophonia Recovery Stories

Check out multiple stories from The Misophonia Freedom Project.

If you know someone who is free from misophonia, I would love to hear their story!

 

Additional Misophonia Pondering

Older misophonia therapy modalities used coping techniques and avoidance. Basically, this might be headphones, ear plugs, not eating with the family, avoiding triggers. While coping techniques can be important, the goal is to lessen the reaction to the trigger or to stop having a reaction. 

 

Seek Help

To sum up, Misophonia can be a debilitating disorder, but you do not have to struggle alone. I offer a free 20 minute phone consultation to discuss my treatment methods and possibly working with me.  My therapy office is located in Ventura (close to Ojai, Santa Barbara, Oxnard, Camarillo, Thousand Oaks). I also see many clients in Los Angeles County and throughout the state for online therapy.