#Misophonia Awareness

[e-claire]

Misophonia sucks so fucking hard and no one anywhere ever wants to talk about it. Literally the only people I've ever had listen to me about my Misophonia are other people with Misophonia. So fuck it, Misophonia Awareness Post or something, I want to vent.

Allow me to describe what it is first for all the lucky people who aren't fucked over. Misophonia is likely an Audio-Processing Disorder (Potentially some form of Synesthesia) in which certain sounds trigger a fight or flight reaction. Trigger sounds can vary and sometimes after long term exposure it can create a reaction to the visuals associated with those sounds. It is possibly genetic, there is no known cause, there is no known treatment, there is only suffering and ways of generally kind of reducing that suffering. When I hear people chewing I am filled with a rage that can only be described as "Bordering on a primal desire to Kill." and there's nothing I can do about that. A family member or friend takes a bite of something crunchy and I have to sit there and exist with thoughts of pounding their fucking skull into paste with my bare god damn hands and then afterwards I have to go back to "being normal". I have to just pretend that didn't happen, I can't do anything with those emotions, I can't put them anywhere, I can't talk about them with anyone or gain any understanding or sympathy from others for having them.

When I see someone chewing food anymore it's borderline impossible for me to remain in the room with them for any more than a few seconds because the mere sight of them chewing makes me physically ill and inspires in me a sense of deep disgust and panic that I could never ever hope to describe.

I tell people about what it's like and I get one of four reactions :

"Oh I think I have that too" With a weird amount of curious excitement at the concept of having a fun new quirky thing to mention in conversations. This means that they don't have it, and they'll then proceed to list off a couple different things that literally no human being likes to hear and how much that thing "annoys them". This makes me want to kill myself.

"Wow, Yikes." Through a grimace. This means I was too open about how it makes me feel and they now think i'm a either a freak, liability, time bomb, or over-dramatic, and will do everything they can to avoid the subject in the future so that I can't make them uncomfortable. This makes me want to kill them AND myself.

Immediately eats something really loudly to set me off as a "joke". This means that they're an obnoxious piece of shit that I have to try my absolute hardest not to beat to death with my bare hands. This makes me want to kill them, if that wasn't already obvious.

"Oh. So that's what this is called." This means they have it, and we can both engage in a brief period of mutual trauma sharing that helps us know we're not alone, and that our curse is unfortunately shared with others. This makes us both somewhat melancholy, and kinda ruins the vibes until something fun happens.

And then we get into the "How do you make the pain stop", and good news! You can't. There is no way to make it stop. But you can make it hurt less with ✨Spending Unbearable Amounts of Cash✨

You can buy a billion different types of earplugs that will all do great at muting the world but always leave you incredibly unaware of the world around you and leave you fucked in-terms of listening to media.

You can buy normal headphones that will kind of work but never mute the world around you anywhere near enough and vaguely frustrate you constantly, but hey at least you're a bit more accessible! Try combining these with a combination of rain and static noise playing at all times in the background for an extra layer of silence :)

You can buy ANC headphones that cost infinitely too much money and are almost always built to break so that they can farm cash from you in repairs, but the ANC is so useful despite not working perfectly that you can't really exist without it so you're gonna spend 200+ dollars every couple years because you don't have a choice, and spend every single day 24/7 wearing hot heavy over-ear headphones! Use the Rain and Static Noise combo with this as well for the best ANC effect.

And inevitably, all of these options will give you hearing problems, potentially make you aware of new trigger sounds, and always leave you a step behind everyone else when a conversation happens. Pro-Tip : For when the sounds are really intrusive and you're on the verge of a breakdown, Combine ANC with Ear Plugs and the R&SN background audio to basically kill noise in it's entirety for a little while :)

AND NOW WE GET TO THE PART WHERE I SAY WHAT THE FUCK CAN YOU NORMIES DO TO MAKE OUR SUFFERING LESS FUCKING CONSTANT.

Listen to us. Don't ostracize us for experiencing emotions we can't control and don't mean or want to act on. If you can, try your best to do the trigger noises quietly, and try your best not to do the trigger visuals in-front of us. We know it's not something you can control entirely, but if you can make the effort to make our lives suck less, we'll really fucking appreciate it.

And if you try to get back at us during a fight by eating something really crunchy to abuse our disorder for your benefit, I swear to god I will hunt you down personally and subject you to the most violent and painful torture I can manage before killing you and hiding your body somewhere no one will ever find it so that your loved ones never have the closure of knowing if you died or if you're still somewhere out there. Thanks for reading even though I know you didn't because the length of this post is frankly unhinged and i'll probably only get like 2 likes at best.

[jaidyne]

Misokenia is not talked about anywhere near enough,

Like I thought i was going insane wanting to rip my eyes out when I saw a girl playing with her hair, or someone bouncing their leg.

Like it took me so long to figure out what it was even called?

With misophonia, while not talked about either is a lot more popular (knowledge wise) in comparison to misokenisa.

Like where are my sufferes of both misos at 💔

[the-sun-is-also-a-star]

there are. sounds.

[afterartist]

Also I forgot to post this one

(Definitely gonna do a more InDepth post for this for this AU)

But I was inspired by a few other AUs, namely Anxiety sans by @hheisa and ADHD sans by @/gudulle

Seeing other people make sans AUs with disorders inspired me to make one based of a disorder I struggle with but not many people know about,

So meet Misophonia sans!!

Misophonia (also known as Selective Sound Sensitivity Disorder) is an Anxiety disorder (thought to be a negative cousin of Synesthesia and also had heavy links to PTSD) where the sufferer, upon hearing certain triggering noises, with go into a full blown panic attack,

The response can vary from person to person and even just day to day, but most common are the urge to flee the situation, cry/shut down or attack the person making the triggering noise in an attempt to silence them

Most common triggering noises are related to chewing or breathing, I myself can accidentally set myself off from my own breathing and it’s horrible, (also a common misconception is it being the loud noises that trigger Misophonics, but more often then not it’s the quieter sounds) though this is actually quite different from the noises that regular people get upset by

There’s a huge difference in being annoyed by a sound verse actively trying to deafen one’s self to avoid the trigger noises

Also, side note, if someone tells you they’re struggling with Misophonia and you think it’s okay to deliberately make their trigger sounds to upset them please block my account and never interact with me, you are deplorable.

Anyway, I can’t explain all about Misophonia in a single post with a rough sketch, so i implore you to go research some more on your own, but I will definitely be making more posts about this lil guy

Ps: some of the only slightly positive/interesting news about Misophonia is that it’s been found Misophonics usually seem to have a stronger positive reaction to music then non Misophonics :D

[riiviir]

Misophonia Research Survey!!!

This is not my project, this is copied and pasted from a Reddit post with permission from the OP.

Investigating Potential New Technologies to Produce Accessible Solutions for People with Misophonia:

Hello! I am a Physics student at Imperial College London. In collaboration with a fellow Physics student and a Design Engineering student, we are working on innovative technologies to support individuals with misophonia. The inspiration for this project stems from the challenges faced by my little sister, who experiences misophonia.

We've successfully advanced to the second phase of a competition that, if we proceed further, will provide substantial funding and support for the development of these technologies. However, we cannot do this alone. It is essential that we incorporate people with misophonia in the development of this idea in order to make it as helpful as possible. For this reason, we have devised a survey. The valuable insights gathered from this survey will guide us in creating more effective and tailored solutions.

Our ultimate goal is to develop a low-cost, accessible solution that can significantly improve the lives of those dealing with misophonia. It is very important to us that we are able to incorporate the experiences and needs of the misophonia community into the heart of our project.

Your participation in our survey would greatly contribute to this effort and help propel the growth of these new technologies. Thank you for your help.

[https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScFu\_z4I9eMfw6cHKIUzdHvFggsKAhgr8cqalrbshIo23c4Cw/viewform?usp=sf\_link](https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScFu_z4I9eMfw6cHKIUzdHvFggsKAhgr8cqalrbshIo23c4Cw/viewform?usp=sf_link)

[art-and-misophonia]

Chips

This was the first piece I created for my portfolio. When I made it, I was thinking about how small moments seem to take forever, especially when noise is involved. I tried to convey this pausing of time (and intense focus on small noises) in relation to a bag of chips being opened.

Several people have mentioned that the stacking of images here looks like a spine. This was unintentional on my part, but I do like it! Sometimes noises do send a shiver down my spine...

[verytinykitten]

My mom triggering my misophonia out of my sleep talk about the opposite of breakfast in bed

[mekkamimzi]

misophonia things

So I'm 33, about to be 34, and I've had misophonia for 23 yesars. Chewing, smacking, slurping, etc etc all trigger me the most. My sister gave birth to children. As toddlers, and so far, they can eat in my ear and I'm fine. It can't JUST be because they are kids? My ex boyfriend's son triggered me when he was even 3. I do notice my alcoholism "numbs" my triggers but I have to quit. I don't wanna be a drunk to escape.. But when the children are here my heart melts. I don't know why, I don't know how, I don't care. But this has got to MEAN something. So I ask is there anyone(s) in your lives that can make your trigger noise actions but not actually trigger you?

Maybe my sister's kids are magic..

EDIT: Sorry the format is weird, I'm disabled and only have one hand to type..

[misophoniameg]

10-9-23 || stories

hello!!

college adventure with misophonia! two stories :)

first one is in my film history class we watch screenings in a small theater on campus and it’s super wonderful for me because i finally get to be in a theater and watch a movie with people eating and sometimes i don’t even wear my earbuds! at the last screening i was the only one there and it was very nice bc then i didn’t have to worry if anyone was going to make a noise. there was an awful awful gum smacking scene oh my lord it was so bad and that tainted the memory a little bit but other than that it’s been nice.

second! i finally told some more people that i have misophonia and they BOTH knew what it was!! i didn’t have to explain!! AND! one of them has family members with it so they like REALLY understand. that was an incredible moment <3 i was very shocked when it happened but a very good shock

[eliounora]

it's probably nothing but sometimes I wonder if I have ADHD. especially at work I really struggle remembering all the little details and stuff I have to check, and I've noticed I always feel restless and yet tired. I've also started to forget more and more stuff, though I've always been careless without meaning to. my mom is convinced I should get checked but all mental health professionals have dismissed me because I've "done so well in school". one time I even paid a shitton for a private doctor and she simply told me everyone has some neurodivergent traits. now it's true I'm not the perfect picture of a stereotypical person with ADHD, but it's tough to get dismissed before even getting a proper evaluation

[bigprettygothgf]

we need to find the guy who invented Loud Keyboards and violently beat him with hammers

[solobodor]

RAMBLE POST LETS GOOO !!!

so this was originally part of a longer post about chip that i got writer-blocked about so im taking it out to post it here

------------

Can we agree that chip have misophonia ? aka, selective sound sensitivity syndrome

i note that I have misophonia myself and that it is often associated with ADHD (which i have) and/or Autism. the link i made between canon element and this HC are based on my own experiences.

I've read people say that Chip is rude, canon dialogue from chip are really scares. we know the chip we see in game is not really "him" and the part that we DO see comes from a overly stressed out and scared chip. and every the override to me comes off as more of a defensive ??

when i read that his employer find him "rude" . i do think about the many time i was OVERSTIMULATED and ticked off and my only response was lashing out , as it often is with that syndrom ... it makes sense for someone else with misophonia to be seen as blunt, rude or "grumpy" when triggered and other people not realizing the stimuli that caused the reaction

I do read this as if his hat is more of noise cancelling apparatus around his "ears" and someone asking him to take it off could set off a negative reaction from him.

I wear a noise canceling headphone and gets really stressed out when i cant wear it or am asked to take it off.

but for a lot of people, even other people with misophonia sadly, they do not understand, see people wearing noise canceling apparatus as "disrespectful" when we're just .. trying to live ? going outside without my headphone is a NIGHTMARE...

Chip getting defensive about being asking to take off his hat 100% read as something similar to that experience ... on a second reading, it being a comfort object that he wear for comfort fits into the hc

the work force scares me a lot bc of misophonia, im scared to have to deal with noise i don't like, im scared of people not understanding my issues or weaponizing it (happens SOOO much often than you think, yall DO NOT tell other people your triggers)

Seen a character in media have similar mannerism as me AND HEY , dude won, he got his quiet place, thank you Jennifer <3 makes me really happy

I love this HC a lot and i dont need it to be confirmed to see it as canon, it is to me and it helps me a lot to see character in similar situation as me <33

[the-sun-is-also-a-star]

if you're one of those people who are like "oh my god im so ocd!!" and then you just like to be organized, shut the fuck up. literally shut the FUCK up. You have no fucking idea what its like. Its like being trapped in a mental prison. Its being called weird and ridiculed by my own family because i have to wash my hands between helpings of food or because i have to run out of the bathroom when i flush the toilet or because even when i smell something awful i have to breath through my nose instead of my mouth because if i breath through my mouth it feels like i can taste it. Its developing conditions that accompany it, like excoriation disorder which makes me dig into my nails so hard they're permanently fucked up and look ghastly and sometimes even bleed and which means i have scabs on my head all the fucking time because i pick at them constantly, or misophonia which makes me flinch at every trigger sound, it gets so bad to the point where i start hitting myself and had to move away from walls because i was sure i was going to bang my head against one. hard. It's having violent intrusive thoughts, sick intrusive thoughts, thoughts that make you stay up into all hours of the night and fret over whether you're a good person, thoughts that make you think about death all the time. your own death, death of loved ones, how people will die, how people will react to you dying. It's having morality ocd, which makes you hate yourself more than anything after any minor mess up. It changes your life. Its fucking hard to live with. so i never want to hear "oh I'm so ocd" from people who aren't actually ocd ever a-fucking-gain.

[afterartist]

Phone my beloved

More Phone content because he is my scrinklo

He’s listening to heavy metal <3<3

Fanart of Phone dying in a glue trap

Also, I’ve found that one of the ways I can cope with my trigger sounds is by watching or listing to something,

Usually I watch twitch streams while eating and it serves as a good distraction and noise filter,

So I thought, seeing as the skelebros care about eachother so much they’d definitely still want to figure out a way to eat together and bond,

This, every night they put on the TV and(because it’s always just the same rerun of Mettaton’s channel) talk to each other about their day

Also this totally wasn’t just an excuse to draw skelebros bonding hush-

Papyrus is also really amazing at trap making in this AU and is an offical member of the Royal guard (shut up he deserves this-)

(Also sans still has like- all six of his jobs because you can’t judge someone for their stupid eating sounds if you’re busy judging them for their sins)

And finally, I would like to remind you all that Phone is based off my own personal experiences with Misophonia and is in no way meant to be a representation of the whole community

If you want more info or content of this AU click here!!

(I should really make a master post for this lmao-)

[ignus-moth]

HAPPY MISOPHONIA VISIBILITY DAY!!!

Someone that had misophonia is sensitive to certain sounds, and hearing those sounds cause a severe reaction, usually intense anxiety or anger. I personally get panic attacks and either shut down or become angry. Common triggers are often repetitive sounds like chewing, typing, tapping, footsteps, and many more.

(Keep reading for more info on misophonia!)

Interesting note: Other mental disorders, namely anxiety disorders, cause problems in the parasocial nervous system. This nervous system is in charge of keeping people from danger, so it’s in charge of the “what if”s. When misophonia is triggered, it causes distress in the central nervous system! So misophonia causes physical pain!

There is no way to ignore it, no way to cure it, and there is a severe lack of research on it. There are only coping mechanisms like headphones and noise machines. Oh, and please note that you cannot “get used” to the triggers, so exposure therapy does not work. In fact, being exposed to the triggers makes it worse! So please, if anyone asks you to stop chewing or doing a noise so loud, at least try to be understanding.

Happy misophonia visibility day!!!

[art-and-misophonia]

Hello! If you want to learn more about misophonia, I suggest looking at the website soquiet.org. They have some information and FAQs, but also recently put up links to some videos about the science behind misophonia! They've also posted them to their youtube account, which is linked in their website. I haven't watched all the videos yet, but they do look interesting.