Minding my misophonia madness

My oh my... What a whirlwind week of misophonia mindfulness. (Gotta love alliteration!) Much of it was sparked by traveling - of which more to come this week. (All those anxious travelers in airports and on the planes makes for a trigger filled trip.)

One of the things about misophonia is how simple, innocuous sensations (sounds/sights/smells/tactile feelings) that don't seem to bother other people really rub sufferers the wrong way. I've mentioned before that visual triggers bother me just as much as aural ones and although usually that means someone doing a repetitive motion (such as bouncing their feet, twirling their hair, drumming their fingers, twirling their pen), every now

---

and then I'll come across a trigger that doesn't involve motion at all. Anyway, earlier this week on the plane was one such "non-moving" trigger for me: When someone next to me or sitting in front of me rests their hands on the seat in front of them, whether just to hold the paper they're reading or what looks like they're bracing themselves for a sudden stop. It seems like such an irrational trigger, but even back when I was in DC riding the metro to/from work, it would bother me to no end when people did that while reading the paper. At first I thought it only bothered me when people did that while behind me, because I didn't like how close their hands were resting by my neck, or every now and then they'd be resting their hands on my hair - which really hurts if you turn your head and don't know they're doing that. (Ah the joys of having long hair.) Then I started noticing it when people were doing it in front of me too. I'd think to myself, "Is that paper really THAT heavy you have to support your arms like that?" The anger would build such that I felt like I wanted to smack their hands off of the seat or imagined telling them to keep their hands to their own seat. Of course, that was just an internal monologue, but such is the case with so many of my trigger experiences.

In times when I experience those types of triggers, such as on the plane (as seen in the above photo - and yes, I didn't hesitate taking that photo to use as an example), if I couldn't position myself or my hair to

block any view of the trigger, I was thankful that I was in a public transportation situation where I could temporarily close my eyes. What's interesting is that the guy stopped resting his hand on the seat as soon as I took that photo. I swear I tried to be discrete. Unfortunately, I forgot to turn off the shutter sound on my cell phone before taking the picture. Oh well. At least it worked. One might surmise that perhaps I'm reacting to someone invading my personal space. I can certainly see that being the case when the person is sitting directly behind me or next to me, but that doesn't hold true when it bothers me seeing people doing that ten rows in front of me. What can I say? Misophonia can be a very irrational condition.

Anyway, on the flight back, I was fortunate that the cabin I was in wasn't full. Before the plane took off, I noticed a couple with a very energetic toddler sitting right behind me. (Well, the parents were TRYING to get him to sit still.) I knew the kid's rambunctiousness during the flight would bother me, so I decided to switch seats to two rows in front of me to get further away from the family. That worked for a little bit until we were just about to take off and the person sitting behind me kept fiddling with the tray table - pushing my seat forward and backward and sending annoying vibrations all against me. I wanted to move up one more seat, but had to wait until after we took off and reached cruising altitude. Not only did the flight attendant notice when I finally did move, but there was a pilot sitting in the seat across from me who saw the double move too. I explained to both of them  that I had a medical condition that made me sensitive to certain sounds as well as the feeling of people pushing against my seat. They seemed sympathetic (I think) and when the pilot mentioned some things bother him like that too, I gave him one of the business cards I made for this site. As I mentioned before in earlier posts, even if it's just enlightening one person... I'll do my best to spread awareness about misophonia as much as I can.

On another note, if you haven't checked it out already, I added two new poll questions to the SenseHaven home page (and moved the old one to the Past Polls page). Please take a moment to respond to them.

Thanks!