Does anyone have experience healing from misophonia/sound sensitivity?

[obscure-corner]

I see a few threads on this but they are about four years old at this point. I'm wondering what, if any, new experiences have arisen with members of the forum.

I've used TMS tactics to heal pain in the past, but this feels much, much harder, especially when it's in a living environment and a daily trigger. (low impact sound of foot stomps from a heel walker living below me. Yes, you read that right.) It also feels different, as the pain symptoms were spontaneous and I could usually identify a trigger, whereas my sensitivity with sound has been around for many, many years. I'm not sure how to use my same techniques, if at all.

Anyway, just looking for support and advice. Only full spectrum CBD oil seems to be helping some of my anxiety so far.

 

[JanAtheCPA]

Hi there @obscure-corner and welcome.

And, my commiseration. Frequent obtrusive sound is the worst, whether it's constant or random. Very debilitating to equanimity!

And addressing your equanimity is where you have to go to. Did you ever do one of the programs and get into the skill of expressive writing? AKA journaling, although I like to emphasize that there is no keeping of a formal journal, which is why I've ended up calling it "writing s*** down".

This kind of situation is perfect for inducing rage. There's the obvious and open rage against the person inflicting this upon you, but there's also the deeper rage that we humans have when we're faced with any situation over which we have no control. Uncertainty fits into this as well.

I would suggest you get out the pen and some old notebook paper and just start writing about this situation, about how it makes you feel, about how you can or can't do something about it, about what you'd like to do or say to the person, etc etc etc- basically whatever comes into your head. You might even have random thoughts about incidents from your past, even back to childhood. Don't ignore those random thoughts! They are important, EVEN IF your brain tries to tell you they aren't (it's lying). You can just write it on a separate line as it pops up, and go back to it later.

Write for at least 20 minutes (this is the recommendation of the queen of journaling, Nicole Sachs, who has a dedicated page on her website about how to JournalSpeak (her term)).

See what happens!