Most of us are fairly tolerant of loud noises as long as they don't bother us too often and don't reach a level where the sound vibration is painful. We may experience a negative emotion, become indignant, or even try to influence the source of the loud noise, but nothing more. At the same time, there is a whole category of people for whom even a not very loud or sharp sound is categorically unacceptable and can cause not only irritation, but also anger, as a consequence of the resulting sonic boom.
This painful perception of loud sounds from the surrounding world is called hyperacusis or acoustic phobia. Although this condition is not a disease, the inconvenience caused does not contribute to a full life. Some especially sensitive people may even develop neurotic painful conditions due to the discomfort caused by such sounds.
Any familiar sound can become an irritant - the voices of children, the noise of cars, the hum of a vacuum cleaner, clapping, etc. As for sharp and loud sounds, for example, the sound of a working hammer drill, chainsaw, car horn, they can cause not just inconvenience or irritation, but real pain. It’s even worse for a person whose acoustic phobia develops to the stage when irritation arises from the slightest sounds - quiet music, the buzzing of insects, breathing sounds or the slightest rustle.
It is also worth noting such a phenomenon as misophonia, which differs from hyperacusis in that only certain sounds are perceived painfully, which do not cause a similar reaction in other people. It should be understood that the aggression and hatred of misophonics is not caused by familiar sound stimuli, for example, the creaking of foam on glass, a leaking dripping faucet, the squeal of car brakes, but the most harmless ones - a person can react extremely negatively even to the sound of footsteps, a knock on the door, human speech and etc.
What is misophonia
Misophonia is still not fully understood, so there are no systematic studies on this topic.
We can only be content with the relatively little information we have. So, misophonia manifests itself in an aversion to certain sounds. It is a neurological disease and experts believe it is caused by negative experiences or childhood trauma. It may occur due to the association of sound with an unpleasant memory. No, a screaming alarm clock in the morning and your reaction to it are not a manifestation of misophonia. But a constant trigger for clicking a pen is quite a sign of frustration. It all depends on how much the stimulus interferes. Let’s say if the grinding of metal causes panic, then this is the first alarm bell. The worst thing you can do in this situation is get angry and yell at the person making the noise. Accept that you will never destroy the sources, because murder is inhumane. Misophones tend to try to run away from their problem (literally). For example, they eat alone and always wear headphones. Some never remain in silence, because here the stimulus will be heard clearly and clearly. Another thing is a city where sounds mix into a monotonous mass. What is hell for healthy people is salvation for misophones.
Causes
Sensitivity to extraneous noise can most often intensify when a person experiences strong emotions or serious stress. In such cases, increased anxiety appears and the nervous system is activated. Sound sensitivity can occur in people of any age. It can manifest itself partially, when there is intolerance to certain sounds, or it can be complete, when severe pain occurs from loud sounds.
Hypersensitivity to sounds can be unilateral or bilateral. Often this condition is combined with other hearing disorders. Sometimes increased sensitivity is accompanied by additional symptoms: headaches, dizziness, loss of balance, nausea, sleep disorders.
Hypersensitivity to sounds can be caused by:
- traumatic brain injuries;
- Meniere's disease;
- infectious pathologies of brain tissue;
- neurological disorders (neuroses, panic attacks);
- vascular system disorders;
- brain tumors.
The pathology can be temporary (or periodic) - for example, hypersensitivity to noise can occur with exudative otitis media. Exudate, accumulating in the middle ear cavity, can cause increased sensitivity. After debridement of the nasopharynx, the excessive reaction usually decreases. After treatment for otitis, hypersensitivity to noise and hearing impairment will persist for some time, but after some time the condition will improve.
What do the studies say?
Perhaps the most powerful specialists in the study of the disease today are American neuroscientists Pavel and Margaret Yastrebov. They came up with the term. The couple mainly deals with diseases that are associated with the hearing aid. Experts are even developing special devices that help people with tinnitus, a condition that causes noise in the ears. As for misophonia, the disease is young, it has been studied for no more than fifteen years, and clinical research is proceeding very slowly. But you can help them if you make a generous contribution: $10 million. This is how much, according to doctors, is needed to develop a therapeutic technique. In other words, if they are thinking about treatment, do they have an understanding of what to treat? Yes, but the research isn't the most reliable.
The first large-scale experiment to study misophonia was conducted in 2004 by clinical psychologist Monica Wu. 483 University of South Florida students took part. Its essence was a simple survey to identify symptoms. Doctors found that 20% of respondents showed significant deviations from triggers. The most interesting thing is that half of those who are diagnosed do not live a full life. This is about the fact that a person tries in every possible way to avoid irritating signals.
In 2011, an experiment was conducted in San Diego on a group of volunteers of 11 people. It was supervised by neurologist Vileyanur Ramachandran. The essence of the study was as follows: people were exposed to trigger sounds (chomping, grunting, snoring, Russian rap and sniffing). Everyone reacted equally negatively to what they heard, but the misophones were more irritated. Thus, they concluded that the disease manifests itself in increased excitability to normal processes. That is, your inadequate assessment of sounds is not always a manifestation of misophonia. So take a breath. Well, or be sad, if you like to invent illnesses for yourself. By the way, we talked about this habit earlier.
Manifestations of increased sensitivity with age-related changes
Hypersensitivity to loud noise often accompanies hearing loss in old age. With age, the eardrum begins to poorly tolerate extraneous noise, high-frequency sounds and various sound vibrations. The membrane may become deformed, and in some cases it may rupture.
Older people are more likely to experience hearing fatigue and are more vulnerable to intense sounds. This condition is explained by the fact that the membrane becomes less elastic.
The disorder has several stages:
- The patient feels tingling in the ears and hears popping noises. When exposed to low-frequency noise, increased pressure on the ears is observed, as when flying.
- Discomfort occurs under the influence of low and high frequency sounds. The patient feels a tickling sensation in the organs of hearing, and his speech becomes poorly intelligible.
- Extraneous noises lead to painful sensations in the ears. Speech intelligibility decreases even more and becomes slurred.
- Pain appears even with relatively quiet noises. This pathology is accompanied by vegetative and emotional disorders. It is impossible to understand the patient's speech.
Goodbye, cinemas, or what misophonia leads to
The disease is unpleasant because a person with misophonia is unable to lead a normal social life.
If the first symptoms appear in childhood, then, as a rule, parents, unaware of the disease, mistake the child’s complaints for whims. This gives the impression that no one understands you. In this case, things often come to the point of hysteria. As life progresses, the patient begins to accumulate more sounds that drive him crazy. Therefore, from birth to the age of 20, a misophone has a whole baggage of triggers. It turns out that a person is in constant stress, because you cannot escape from all the signals. Misophones try to avoid public places in everyday life. For example, cinemas are a kingdom of annoying sounds. At one end of the hall someone is reaching for the last of their juice, at the other they are chewing popcorn - danger is everywhere. A healthy person will not notice this, the sick person will become furious. Some people have problems finding partners. Here is a typical story of the owner of the disease:
“I lived with a girl for about six months, and the clicking of the mouse began to irritate me. Although I understand that these are everyday things, as without them.”
Dr. Schroeder, from the University of Amsterdam, says his patients experience severe symptoms, often to the point of loss of function. Returning to the 2011 study, it is worth mentioning that one of the subjects had thoughts of suicide. So there is no doubt that misophonia is a serious disease of the nervous system, and it must be dealt with using appropriate methods.
The phenomenon of accelerated rise in volume
In everyday life, there are often sound stimuli whose intensity far exceeds the threshold of audibility, in particular the sounds of spoken language. Some pathological changes in the receptors of the diseased ear, such as sensorineural hearing loss, cause increased sensitivity to loud noises. This condition is called FUNG - the phenomenon of accelerating the increase in volume. It often occurs with disorders of the peripheral zone of hair cells of the auditory cochlea.
With this disorder, the amplification of sound signals above the threshold is felt by the person as clearly as with normal hearing; a process of accelerated increase in volume occurs. With unilateral hearing loss, the perception of loudness in the pathological and healthy ears is equalized. In the case of bilateral lesions, the Si-Si test is used to diagnose this phenomenon, identifying the threshold of discomfort and the differential threshold for the perception of sound power (Luscher test).
Knock out a wedge with a wedge
The search for suitable therapy continues to this day, but today patients more often resort to self-medication, or rather, look for methods to suppress the reaction. For example, if someone is gnawing on seeds, then you can join the process, because misophone is not afraid of its own sounds. The element of ownership helps reduce the reaction to the trigger. Pavel Yastrebov uses a similar method in therapy; he calls it desensitization. The specialist reduces anger in the following way: the patient is immersed in a pleasant atmosphere, but with a source of irritation. For example, you are sitting eating pizza, and next to you is a person who is slurping loudly. The point is that the patient slowly gets used to it and his reaction changes. Here is what Yastrebov himself thinks about therapy:
“Misophonia can be successfully treated, but it is important to do it correctly.”
Moreover, in 2014 he helped 152 out of 184 people. However, there is work to be done, because the results are not yet close to 100% healing, and the treatment only reduced the manifestation of the disease. The goal of doctors today is to completely get rid of the disease. By the way, you should not resort to the use of drugs, since the nature of the disease is not completely clear. At this stage, the only thing the patient can do is to understand that he is not alone. Explain to loved ones that his behavior is normal. And also try to overcome the symptoms and wait for the next leap in medicine. Perhaps soon scientists will be able to rid humanity once and for all of another unpleasant disease.
Chew, don't go crazy
A study report published in the Journal of Neuroscience states that 33 volunteers were tested using f-MRI scans. Responses to stimuli were also compared in 42 patients with misophonia and a control group.
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Simply put, the basis for irritation is not a reaction to the sounds themselves, but the fact that certain noises cause activity in the area of the brain responsible for the movement of the jaw, larynx and other organs.
“We assume that in misophonia, the stimulus sound activates the motor area,” explained neuroscientist Subinder Kumar. Thus, a person feels a hostile “invasion of sounds.” Some patients manage to cope with symptoms by imitating an action, the sound of which is annoying. This helps restore a sense of control to the patient, Kumar says. According to scientists, the study proves a “neurobiological model” of the disease. According to this theory, the mechanism of misophonia is associated with increased activity in certain areas of the brain.
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Kumar's earlier research confirmed that misophonics have atypical connections between the frontal lobe and the anterior insular cortex (involved in emotional processing). During the tests, they placed the subjects in an MRI machine and alternately played three types of sounds - neutral (for example, the sound of rain), alarming (a child crying) and sounds characteristic of eating. Misophonia sufferers reacted painfully precisely to the sounds of the third category - the activity of both studied zones at the time of reproduction of slurping and swallowing was maximum. Plus, at these moments, the experimental subjects’ heart rate increased and sweating increased. However, researchers were not then able to unambiguously answer the question of whether misophonia could be a consequence of such a brain abnormality, according to a scientific publication on the Current Biology portal.
