Sense Haven: A Site Dedicated to Misophonia
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The "Butterfly's Whisper" Blog

Welcome to my blog. I hope by sharing my own misophonia experiences, others who are frustrated with misophonia sensitivities will discover that they're not alone. I also hope that people who may not have misophonia will gain some insight about what it's like to have this condition.

Please feel free to post any comments or use the "Contact Us" page if you have any questions/comments you don't want to post online.

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Autumn leaves...

9/28/2015

4 Comments

 
I love autumn. There's just something about the smell of the air and the changing colors of the leaves that are so beautiful to me.

I'll admit that the past week+ I've spent mainly recouping physically and mentally from a "perfect storm" of events that resulted in a truly chaotic time for me at work. Despite the beautiful autumn weather this weekend, I barely had the energy to move and mainly relaxed as much as I could. The good thing about it is that I was able to minimize my exposure to triggers (other than the few times my cockatiel was in a whiny mood). The bad thing is that I realized I was isolating myself from the "outside world" in general, something I don't want to get in the habit of doing again.

I'm slowly learning about many of the local events in the area and outdoors groups that are into hiking and skiing (activities I haven't done as much since leaving DC). I need to start joining some of them to interact with the outside world more. I went to Yom Kippur services at one synagogue last Wednesday, but I'm not sure if I'll join that particular congregation. I understand their desire to have services in a multi-purpose open space to gain a sense of community but between the uncomfortable chairs, the cinderblock walls, and the linoleum floors (not to mention some of the poor lighting choices), I found myself distracted by the sounds and visuals around me instead of immersing myself in the program. Perhaps another location - with carpeting to dampen sound transmission - would better suit my needs. 

I'm at least enjoying the one outlet I have singing in an acapella group. It does have its misophonia trigger moments with me though, mainly because two of the members are always chewing gum which is very distracting/annoying to me. (How can people chew gum during a singing rehearsal is beyond me...) We'll see how it goes over the next couple of rehearsals but if it continues, I might need to ask the "culprits" if they could be so kind to leave their gum outside of rehearsal.
4 Comments
Joe N
10/1/2015 08:34:23 pm

I was thinking as I am now dealing with a vacant adjacent townhouse with pinging low battery smoke alarms, it must be like how people get sea sick from the contradicting parallax from rocking movement. Our gyroscopic sense is one of our senses like touch, and when it doesn't jive some people don't take it kindly. To me I think of the ping as interfering with my sonar. I feel the sound. I feel the reverberating echo. I feel the empty rooms in the vacant house. And it doesn't match what I see. It's like listening to a one sided cell conversation. As for gum smacking type sounds, it feels like how shit smells or a wound video on Tosh.O. it's disgusting and contaminating. Agent Smith's description of humans reverberates in my head, "I feel as if I've become infected by it."

Reply
Emlyn
10/18/2015 02:29:08 pm

Wow! A Matrix reference for misophonia. Love it!

I sometimes find myself empathizing with Sheldon's neuroses on Big Bang Theory - like him telling off Leonard for whistling or kicking out his assistant when she wore corduroy pants that were making annoying sounds.

I made a similar connection when sounds don't match the rest of our sensory experiences in a blog post last year. You'll have to let me know if that's similar to your insight. (http://www.sensehaven.com/blog/thanksgiving-evokes-another-deep-thought)

Thanks for sharing your comments!

Reply
Aroe;
10/17/2015 06:41:11 pm

"I went to Yom Kippur services at one synagogue last Wednesday, but I'm not sure if I'll join that particular congregation."

I understand this. I go to a church that holds many triggers. It is one of my greatest challenges. They are all wonderful people but when I hear the sniffling and a person that snores I lose touch with reality all most. I feel like screaming and running out of there. Most of the people I talk to about this just think I am nuts however...

Reply
Emlyn
10/18/2015 02:33:56 pm

Yes, I totally empathize with your sentiments. (You can find many of my past blog entries around holiday time over the past couple of years relaying my frustrations while attending services.)

It's really tough for me... Living so far away from my family, I know they'd love for me to join a congregation, if nothing else to have a community with which I could connect. I just find that my misophonia triggers are so bad at large gatherings like that, the only way I can focus on the service or tolerate my surroundings is to isolate myself from the rest of the community. Sort of defeats the purpose...

Maybe one day misophonia will be more commonly understood by the general public so that we aren't perceived as being "nuts." There was a point in time when people didn't believe autism or ADHD was real. It'll take time but one day misophonia will be recognized like those conditions.

Hang in there!

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    About the Author

    Emlyn Altman has been suffering with misophonia for over 35 years, even though she only found out about the actual medical condition much more recently. As frustrating as the condition has been over the years, her heightened sensitivities across all the senses considerably influenced her talents within the visual fine arts (particularly sculpture), music (singing, piano, and many other instruments), writing, and culinary backgrounds, as well as professional achievements as an architectural lighting designer. Her goal in developing this website is to promote more awareness about misophonia and help other sufferers as well.


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