2023-09-03 21:25:51
“It bothers me when someone chews gum.” “I can’t tolerate the noise that is made when swallowing or chewing.” “I can’t stand the sound of the cell phone keyboard.” “The sound of tennis balls irritates me.” These are some of the phrases that are often repeated by many people who cannot tolerate certain sounds or noises of everyday life.
For years, this intolerance was perceived as a “whim” or the person who manifested it was considered “bad-tempered.” It was only recently that they were able to name this disorder and explain what it causes. This discomfort or sensitivity to sounds is called “misophonia”.
But what is misophonia? The neurologist Alejandro Andersson explained to The voice that it is a disorder that is characterized by generating excessive discomfort before certain sounds. The word “misophonia” comes from the Greek and means: “I hate sound”.
Andersson indicated that it is a picture that is also known as “selective hypersensitivity syndrome” to a certain sound that people feel very uncomfortable. “They find it very difficult to tolerate sounds that are common to the rest. The person says ‘listen to this noise’ or ‘this sound hurts me’. And he asks: ‘Don’t do it because it hurts me,’ ”said the specialist.
It is a syndrome that can have many causes, a set of symptoms and signs. It generates anger, anguish and tension, which alters the person’s mood.
Andersson also argued that not all misophonia pictures are the same. Sometimes it occurs in patients who already have ringing in the ear, hearing disease, or a sound-related disorder. Those who do not tolerate certain sounds are “highly sensitive people (PAS)” from the point of view of the senses and from the emotional.
According to the neurologist, misophonia can have three possible origins. It may be an ear, nose, and throat disorder, a psychological phenomenon, or a strictly neurological pathology.
“In the first case, there may be some alteration that we don’t know about, but that is somewhere in the auditory pathway,” he explained. And he added that some of these patients not only have misophonia, but are highly sensitive people (PAS).
Andersson indicated that there is also a tendency to explain it from psychology, and in other cases from the side of neurology. That is to say, not as a phobia, but as something really organic.
At the same time, he stressed that there is a lack of scientific work on this syndrome and said that it is difficult to quantify how many people suffer from it because of the lack of statistics in this regard.
those who suffer
People who have hypersensitivity begin to feel the discomfort between the ages of 9 and 13. And the list of sounds that can bother them is vast: from the sound made when drinking water, chewing, brushing teeth, sneezing, heavy breathing, a harsh voice, the noise of turning pages or the ringing of the telephone.
In the case of those who suffer from chewing sounds, they cannot even tolerate being at the table, and they are highly reprimanded by their families when they are children. “For example, if you are sitting at a table and someone is cleaning it, generally you don’t pay attention to this action, but there is someone who gets up and covers their ears because they can’t stand the squeak generated,” Andersson exemplified.
Faced with this attitude, the rest of the people stare. They do not understand what is wrong with the person. “At first it was strange because I didn’t know what was happening to me, then I found out it was misophonia,” said Santiago (20), who is intolerant of the sound generated by chewing.
His discomfort began at the age of 14. His family did not understand his irritation, and he asked not to eat at the family table. If he sat down, he did it with headphones listening to music to cover the noise. “He made me nervous, in a bad mood or hysterical,” he sums up.
Even today when they are together at the family table, there is always music to soften the chewing sounds. Sometimes Santiago covers his ear or eats later. “The chewing will always be there. So, I try to lighten up, looking for solutions,” said the young man.
a group to share
Another person who suffers from “selective hypersensitivity syndrome” is Gustavo (53), who assures that he has suffered from it since he was a child. So, he would “run away” from the family table because he could not tolerate the noise of those who were eating and hearing them swallow.
“It was difficult for me to have lunch or dinner as a family. And of course, I took many challenges. I always had to be with the radio or TV on,” Gustavo narrated.
It was only a few years ago that he was able to name what was happening to him and tell his family about it so that they could understand his disturbance. He is also sensitive to certain sounds from the cell phone keyboard and cannot go to the movies because it bothers him that the rest of the audience chews chips or nachos.
“There is no possibility of control. It is a very spontaneous reaction of the body”, affirmed Gustavo. And he said that he discussed it with his psychologist, who recommended that he visit a neurologist to discuss the issue. Later, he joined the WhatsApp group “Living with misophonia”, where he interacts with other people who suffer from the same sensitivities.
Joining the group brought him relief and he knew that other people also suffered the same disturbances and that he was not alone. Thus he realized that everyone has “ears too tuned”. So, “we can hear that sound in the distance and it becomes difficult to focus on something else,” explained the man.
He also spoke about it in his family environment because it is the way in which other people can understand what is happening to him. “Unfortunately,” he said, “there are those who understand you, others who tease you, and others who tell you that you are a grump and bad-tempered.”
Also in the same group is Graciela (49), who realized that she can’t stand the sounds of computer keyboards when she spent long hours at work and especially in an office where there was a lot of noise. “She came home and cried,” the woman said.
“I began to have very marked individual symptoms. If I had someone next to me chewing gum or someone moving their leg constantly, I also found it intolerable. I felt anger and irritation,” Graciela said.
As a result, he began to do therapy, but without finding a solution. He almost quit his job and realized that those sounds bothered him in other ways too. When he was faced with these stimuli he had tachycardia, extreme sweating and even left the place. No one around him understood what was happening to him.
He read a lot about misophonia and a neurologist asked him what was happening to him. His health was deteriorating. “Misophonic people have excessive brain activity, perceiving sounds that go from 50 to 60 decibels. You can’t stop the cascades of emotions that trigger these noises and escape from the place where you are, ”he said.
Now, he continues to perform psychological therapy and other types of therapies. “Family support is very important. But there is no way to understand 100% of everything we suffer and it is a daily situation. Not only do you have to deal with the symptom but also with the family,” she expressed.
And he recommended understanding that you are not alone, that it is not a psychiatric illness, and that you have to seek help and protect yourself. “It ends up being an individualistic disease. You have to tell what happens to you because there are days that are worse than others, ”she highlighted.
Is there a cure?
Neurologist Alejandro Andersson pointed out that there is no specific treatment for misophonia. “There are therapies to train and focus on something else. There are psychological therapies, but there is no treatment with scientific evidence to deal with this, ”he said.
Misophonia – highlighted the specialist – is a very annoying condition not only for the person who suffers from it but also for the family environment. “You have to talk, agree and they have to understand it,” he recommended.
Experts from the University of Oxford and King’s College London warned in a study that misophonia is more common than previously thought and delved into the main causes that trigger it. “There are certain sounds that elicit a negative emotional response, such as hard chewing, slurping, snoring, and breathing,” they explained.
At the same time, they highlighted that the misophonic response can vary from mild irritation to anger and anguish, and that it can cause social and occupational deterioration.
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