2 replies to this topic

[darksprout]

My psychologist recently told me my reactions to people chewing with their mouth open, making obnoxious noises with their mouths, and even snoring is greatly outbalanced to that of the general public. But I am not really sure what came first, my eating disorder or this.. It has gotten to the point where I cannot eat around certain people at all (escalated to the point of me throwing a tray at someone while IP, dislocated a finger and gave myself bruises on the side of my head near my ear) but most treatment for such is exposure therapy but exposure to the noises can/has caused me to restrict and purge. But everyone knows I sure as hell am not really about to eat by myself so.
Thoughts ? Suggestions ? Tips/Tricks ?

[catinflight]

So sorry to hear you struggle with misophonia in conditions which exacerbate the ED. My trigger is the sound of throat clearing. IMO if exposure therapy was a solution, we'd be cured by now.

For now your best path of action may be to identify those who trigger you the most/worst and either avoid them or introduce them to misophonia passively (i.e. with a non-accusatory tone of voice). That's what I did with my mother whose constant throat-clearing was close to genuinely breaking my sanity - I explained misophonia and its consequences for the sufferer, she understood and over time replaced throat clearing with coughing, which I don't mind.

Good luck!

[Daerienn]

I hear you. I've been violent to people making chewing and slurping sounds. Any sort of noise gets me pissed. Be it chewing, snoring, slurping, throat clearing, coughing etc. I hate them all. And exposure therapy does shit for me. I've been dealing with it by turning the tv on as background noise while eating with people. And I can't eat alone either so... 

So I suggest you use some kind of background noise to concentrate and try to ignore the disgusting noises. I also put my earbuds on when I'm working so I can ignore the noises people make. Most of the time I don't even listen to anything and only use them as a way to cancel the noise aka simple earplugs.