Bold of you to assume “It depends” or “I need background noise so that the random ambient background noise does n’t drive me up the wall” aren’t options.
[ID: a screenshot of a tweet by Richard (Jeep era), handle @halkyardo, reading:
“Are you "I must have background noise at all times” neurodivergent, or are you “background noise drives me literally insane” neurodivergent?“
The tweet was posted at 6:51 PM on 2022-03-16, and by the time of the screenshot the tweet had 1,650 retweets, 3,291 quote tweets and 30.5K likes. /end of ID]
[Video ID: a small field of multi-coloured pigs eating red tomatoes. The pigs are wandering around, eating and playing with their food. end ID.]
[Audio transcript:
The sound of the pigs eating and occasionally squealing is heard throughout the video.
Narrator, out of frame: “Well, it’s tomato Sunday … Has everybody got a tomater? … they like it.”
end ID.]
[Image ID: a screencap of some of the pigs from the video. One particular pig in the background is looking towards the camera with a whole tomato in its mouth. Impact text reads: “Happy Tomato Sunday / From my family to yours”. end ID.]
Ok but can someone PLEASE explain to me why humans eating loudly/messily makes me violently upset but animals eating loudly/messily like this is adorable?
In all seriousness, some people do find certain sensory things—noises, textures, patterns of movement—painful. If they ask you to please stop clicking your pen or to chew with your mouth closed, they’re not trying to be rude. Giving them understanding instead of judgment is the best thing you can do.
YEESSSS
Please tell me I’m not the only one where the chewing thingy makes me nauseous???? Gonna go do some research.
You’re not. Not by a long shot. Loud chewing is actually a very common trigger sound for people with misophonia.
ADHD here.. anyone else find those trigger sounds are perfectly fine as long as I’m the one making the sound, but if someone else makes it… rage?
Haha, not me. I can trigger myself if I smack my lips by mistake.
In all seriousness, some people do find certain sensory things—noises, textures, patterns of movement—painful. If they ask you to please stop clicking your pen or to chew with your mouth closed, they’re not trying to be rude. Giving them understanding instead of judgment is the best thing you can do.
YEESSSS
Please tell me I’m not the only one where the chewing thingy makes me nauseous???? Gonna go do some research.
You’re not. Not by a long shot. Loud chewing is actually a very common trigger sound for people with misophonia.
When to wear headphones: when listening to music or podcasts or videos or whatever in public. Its literally so fucking rude to force other people to listen to whatever you’re watching/listening to, oh my god.
When NOT to wear headphones: when you’re driving a car. This seems silly but no, for real. You NEED to be able to hear things going on outside your vehicle. If youre playing music through your car speakers, even if its loud, you will HEAR IT when someone crashes into someone else, or when your car suddenly starts making a strange or alarming sound, or when an ambulance or firetruck siren is coming closer and closer to you. If youre wearing headphones, you won’t hear any of that. They’ll block all external sound, and that is, genuinely, a hazard on multiple levels.
For anyone with misophonia out there, there’s a scene in Season 4 episode 2 around 10:30 with some terrible chewing sounds. Actually made me furious hearing it, the way it sounded was really triggering.
A groundbreaking study about misophonia was released this year by Dr. Sukhbinder Kumar and his team from the Institute of Neuroscience at Newcastle University and the Wellcome Center for NeuroImaging at the University College London and has changed the game when it comes to discussing this misunderstood neurological condition.
It’s so interesting, so fascinating to people with backgrounds in psychology and neurology, but to the commonperson? Words like “ventromedial prefrontal cortex”, “amygdala”, and “myelination” might as well be in a completely different language.
And I know that most people with misophonia would absolutely loveto be able to understand what’s wrong with them, so that’s why I’m doing this. Strap yourselves in, we’re taking a crash course in miso-psychology!
Some Words You Should Know Before We Get Started So You’re Not Totally Lost:
- Frontal Lobe:
This is the brain part in the very front. It is important because it controls emotions, problem-solving, memory-language, judgement, and the birds and the bees. The control panel, if you will.
-Cerebral Hemispheres:
Think of a hemisphere as half of a globe. Your brain is the globe (the word cerebralcome from cerebrum, which is your brain), and the hemispheres are the two halves; left and right.
-MyelinandMyelination:
Myelin is an insulating substance that covers special nerves in the brain that send information. (Kind of like those chutes at drive-through banks you send your money through.) The more myelin is covering the chutes, the faster and more vroomwhooshthe information can send. More myelin is like high-speed Internet.
-Ventromedial Prefrontal Cortex (vmPFC):
Don’t panic, this is just a big word that tells us exactly where on the brain this part is. “Ventro-” on the underside of the brain, “-medial” in the middle, “Pre-” before, “-frontal” in the frontal lobe, “cortex” center. So it’s on the underside of the brain, in the middle, and on the very tip of the frontal lobe. It actually sits right above the eye-socket. VmPFC for short, this part of the brain helps keep emotions like fear and empathy in line and helps you make decisions.
-Salient: Important, or relevant.
-Stimuli:Sensory information coming into the brain through your eyes, ears, nose, mouth, or skin.
-Anterior Insular Cortex (AIC):
“Anterior” in the front, not posterior, “insular cortex” the area of the brain in the middle (imagine a baseball in a mitt - the baseball is the insular cortex and the mitt is the rest of the brain). This part of the brain is on the front of the insular cortex and does a lot of things. The AIC decides what stimuliissalient. This part of the brain helps process emotions. It also arranges all the sensory information you’re taking in so that you have a good picture of what’s going on in the world around you. Believe it or not, but how you experience the world is all related to how your senses are processed!
- The Amygdala:
The area of the brain where the fight-or-flight response is started. Fight-or-flight is what kept humans alive in the caveman days where the rustling in the bushes could be a bunny, but could also be a tiger.
The amygdala is located in the insular cortex we talked about above and assigns salienceto sensory stimuliso you can be ready to run in case it’s not a bunny, but a tiger.
Now That That’s Settled, What Causes Misophonia?
Okay. So the first thing that Kumar’s team notes through their MRI studies is that people with misophonia have a tonofmyelinin their vmPFCs. This means that people with misophonia have vmPFCs that function much faster than the average person. Also, the vmPFC is an area that has a ridiculous amount of information bank-chutes to many other areas of the brain.
Like the areas which process memories, smells, and most importantly, the amygdala.If the vmPFCand the amygdalaare talking more than usual? There can be trouble. And that trouble is spelled M-I-S-O-P-H-O-N-I-A.
This study also found that people with miso also have greater activation in the AICwhen they hear trigger sounds.
Remember how I mentioned that the AICis responsible for putting together a picture of your reality based on the sensory information you’re picking up? Imagine if for whatever reason, the AIC decides that grandma chewing gum is important.
Then the amygdala, for whatever reason, thinks that because grandma’s gum-chewing is important, it must be a tiger in the bushes and you gotta be ready to run.
Then the vmPFCgets confused and thinks it needs to be angry about it because together with the amygdala, they’re not processing emotions the way that they should be.
Before you know it, the misophonia sufferer, through no fault of their own, is experiencing the anxiety of being chased by a tiger when they know full well grandma’s gum-chewing sounds aren’t a tiger; and in addition, they’re really freaking angry about it.
To me, this research is fascinating because it confirms everything I have felt as a misophonia sufferer. I have felt like an idiot because I know full well that my classmate eating chips isn’t going to hurt me. But my body is responding like the noise is actuallya threat to my bodily safety. This is because my brain doesn’t see reality as reality, and even though Iknow that, my brain doesn’t.
And before anyone tries to say, “Well if you knowit’s not going to hurt you, can’t you decide to not be bothered by it?” let me say this: the brain is an organ. It’s part of the body. You can’t just decide to not have cancer because you know you don’t need to grow a tumor right there. Your body thinksit does, but you’re not thinking for your body.
I hope that this post helps to clear up questions about what misophonia is, because it isa very complicated and unbelievable-sounding disorder. And though you may not be a scientist, my hope is that after reading this, you may be able to better understand what’s going on in your body and feel more in the loop with the current research.
(Original artwork by Steven Thomas Vomacka not to be independently posted elsewhere without credit being given.)
@ people with autism and misophonia: you’re doing great!!!!✨✨ you’re an important and valued part of the miso community!!!!!✨✨✨
@ people with misophonia and not autism: you’re doing great too!!!✨ you’re not faking your misophonia, it’s just as real as anyone else’s!!!!! ✨✨✨
@ people with misophonia and spd: you’re wonderful!!!✨✨ it’s okay if you can’t always tell your disorders apart, there’s no need to figure it all out!!!!✨✨ everything you feel is real and important!!!!!✨✨
@ people with misokinesia but not misophonia: I know the community is very centered on misophonia, but you’re important and real too!!!!✨✨✨ you belong here and you’re doing great!!!!✨✨
@ people with misophonia and OCD: I see you and you’re doing great too!!!!✨✨ you’re loved and supported!!!!✨✨
@ people with misophonia and BPD: you’re important and seen too!!!!✨✨ you’re loved and always welcome here!!!✨
@ every combination of the above and more: you’re real and you’re visible too!!!!✨✨you’re important and you’re doing great!!!✨✨
misophonia isn’t a symptom!! it’s a complex condition of its own!! sometimes it mixes with other conditions!!
I know it can feel very complicated and overwhelming sometimes, but you’re always supported here!!! ✨✨
“Wish I were deaf”, That’s what crosses my mind daily At least ten times a day. A bit harsh I know, But with misophonia, I can stay happy for more than an hour Because people make noises And I shout, I storm, I hate. And they hate me back. And if I were deaf, all would have been well.
My sister’s dragging her feet around the house and refusing to stop. If she goes on I’m probably gonna have to smack my hands to the wall so to not smack them to someone’s face.
First I need to say that I haven’t been diagnosed with having misophonia. But after doing some research recently, I certainly identify with having it. My triggers include beeping sounds, my step-father’s high-pitched hearing aides, certain voices, crowded and loud areas, certain bodily movements like tapping of hands on a table. Generally, when I encounter these noises, I try to remove myself from them. But that’s not always possible, and that’s when I start to feel cornered and agitated.
Then when you throw in other issues like problems with authority, any type of criticism from others, etc, well, it just makes for a very difficult time, trying to socialize with people. I’m 48 now, and it’s just been getting worse as I age. I’ve been seeing a neurologist for some headache issues recently, and that’s been working out very well. I see him again for a followup appointment this week. I want to bring this up with him, but I’m dreading any potential criticism on his part. But I’ve got to do something. In the past three months I’ve had screaming encounters with strangers, co-workers, and family members potentially because of misophonia.
I understand criticism is very hard when the problems you have to deal with are real and are extremely difficult to deal with. I’m glad they are helping you though! Feel free to print out that doctor’s note I posted a while back and try and explain the best you can. If it doesn’t go well with him find a new doctor who is willing to listen! Therapy and neurofeedback may also be very beneficial to you. Good luck and I am always here to help the best I can! :)
