Schizophrenia and Misophonia
Vložit
- čas přidán 2. 06. 2024
- Hi Everyone! My name is Stephen. I've had schizophrenia since age 12. Even ten years later, schizophrenia has caused me to be hypersensitive to everyday noises. This condition, called misophonia, causes me to become anxious when I hear certain noises. In this video, we demonstrate how noise affects me and how it has impacted my life and my family's life. My dad demonstrates eating some chips and using a knife to cut some food on a plate, which is very painful to me.
Living with Schizophrenia and Misophonia: Navigating a World of Noise
Welcome to another episode of Surviving Schizophrenia, where we explore the world of mental health and share stories of resilience, recovery, and hope. In today's video, we're diving into the lesser-known condition called misophonia, which accompanies my schizophrenia diagnosis. Misophonia is characterized by an extreme sensitivity to certain sounds, leading to anxiety and distress. We'll discuss my experience with misophonia, demonstrate how specific noises affect me, and explore its impact on my life and my family's life.
Schizophrenia and Misophonia: While schizophrenia is primarily known for its hallucinations and delusions, it can also be accompanied by misophonia. I have experienced this heightened sensitivity to sounds since the onset of my schizophrenia at age 12. This condition has added an extra layer of complexity to my mental health journey.
The Sounds That Trigger: Misophonia causes me to react with anxiety and distress to certain noises, such as someone eating chips or a knife cutting food on a plate. These seemingly innocuous sounds can be excruciatingly painful for me, making daily life challenging.
The Impact on Daily Life: Living with misophonia has forced me to adapt my lifestyle to minimize exposure to triggering sounds. This has included using noise-canceling headphones, seeking out quieter environments, and creating a daily routine that minimizes sensory overload.
The Effect on Family Life: Misophonia has impacted not only my life but also that of my family. They have had to adjust their behaviors and be mindful of the sounds they make to accommodate my sensitivity. This has brought about a greater understanding and empathy within our family dynamic.
Demonstrating the Impact of Noise: A Candid Experiment
In this special episode of Surviving Schizophrenia with Stephen, my father and I demonstrate the effect of noise on my misophonia:
Eating Chips: My dad eats some chips, showcasing this familiar sound's distressing impact on me. I explain my physical and emotional reaction to the noise and how it triggers anxiety and discomfort.
Cutting Food: Next, my dad uses a knife to cut some food on a plate, which makes another painful noise for me. This experiment highlights my everyday challenges, such as sharing a meal with my family.
Managing Reactions: As we showcase these triggering noises, I also discuss the coping mechanisms I use to manage my reactions, such as deep breathing exercises, grounding techniques, and self-compassion.
Navigating Life with Schizophrenia and Misophonia
Seeking Professional Help: Like schizophrenia, misophonia requires professional guidance to develop coping strategies and reduce anxiety. Working with therapists and psychiatrists has been essential in managing both conditions.
Building a Support System: The support of my family, friends, and mental health professionals has been crucial in helping me navigate life with schizophrenia and misophonia. Their understanding and empathy have made a significant difference in my well-being.
Raising Awareness: Sharing my experiences is essential to raising awareness about misophonia, a condition that often remains hidden in the shadows. By discussing my challenges, I hope to foster greater understanding and compassion for others with this condition.
Conclusion
Living with schizophrenia and misophonia presents unique challenges that require patience, understanding, and adaptability. Through open communication and support from my family and mental health professionals, I have developed coping strategies that help me navigate the world of noise. By sharing my story, I hope to raise awareness about misophonia and schizophrenia.
#schizophrenia #depression #mentalhealth #anxiety
Your father is really good at explaining and outlining the issues that you face with the illness, and very understanding too.
Thank you very much!
Such a relief to know I'm not alone in this. For me, triggers include dishes and loud footsteps above me, but everything else is still abnormally loud. I basically live in my school's library when I'm not visiting home. Some ways I cope when I can't remove myself from triggers are using noise cancelling ear buds with headphones on top, turning on a fan, and reducing the intensity of other stimuli (like dimming the lights and wearing comfy clothes).
Thank you Sophia for sharing. I am happy you have found coping strategies!
So proud and inspired by you! Thank you for sharing. I am LCSW in Florida and am personally and currently dealing with a close family member that has been experiencing psychosis. Finding your channel means so much to me. I can’t publicly say much about my family members situation for now. I admire your courage and strength and vulnerability 💕💪🏽
Hi! In EMDR Europe conference 2023 they presented a case where misophonia got treated. The case was not related to schizophrenia, however, it was really interesting, took only 4 sessions (for highly professional specialist) and the symptoms were gone.
Hat's off to you both. What a journey yall have been on and thank you for sharing it. Stephen I completely understand what you are saying about noise inducting anxiety. If I am in a large crowd of people, the humming of everyone talking at once and having to be in a large crowd, will cause me to have a massive anxiety attack. I knew the exact feeling you were describing when you said it made you want to leave, to crawl out of your skin if you must to get away feeling. I can't lie, it does keep me from going out a lot but I really don't mind. I also understand about the clinking sound, for me it is tone pitches. I was a 911 dispatcher for 26 years and when I hear a certain scream, squeal from a child or idk just a certain pitch, I almost collapse in on myself. As you did state, if I can get myself hyper focused on something, it can help me withstand some of the noise anxiety. Thank you both again and I look forward to watching more. Stephen you hang in there, you were made to overcome great obstacles.
Stephen, first, thank you for your videos.
Our family is currently struggling with figuring out how to help my son who was recently diagnosed with schizophrenia.
This video was even more personal for me as I suffer from misophonia myself. I only last year was finally diagnosed with it by an audiologist and offered a treatment program. She is the only one in our region who treats it, and it took years to find her. I have had to set that aside though as that was at the same time things were developing with my son's disorder which became our main focus.
The treatment I was offered is Sound Retraining Therapy. The audiologist has had great results with it for her patients. I'm still going to pursue it when I'm able.
One thing I read a few years ago about misophonia is that some researchers think it may have to do with a sort of misfiring, or miswiring of the pathways that cause auditory signals to be misrouted directly to the limbic system, specifically the amygdala, if I'm remembering this correctly, which triggers the fight or flight response.
This information was helpful for me as it seems to fit with what I experience.
Misophonia has been one of the most difficult things I've personally experienced. It's made it very difficult to be around people in a daily living kind of setting. I understand what you were saying about being able to handle family gathering type events. I can do that, when needed, without any big problems for mainly the same reason you stated. I know it's a limited time, and mostly, my guard is up and awareness is already peaked in those settings, so I'm usually not caught off guard by unexpected sounds.
I'll be following you, and have subscribed.
Again, thank you, and your Dad, for sharing your experiences.
Thank you for your meaningful and informative comment! Have an amazing day!
I have schizo affective disorder bi polar type and had misophonia for awhile. I didn't have it as bad as you. I have had it as badly briefly before when psychotic. I got used to being around people by sitting in a park where families gather. I may have just been angry sometimes. I can only say for sure I've had it a few times when very sick.
Thank you for sharing! Have a happy and healthy rest of your day!
Excellent presentation!
Sounds much like an auditory processing disability, which makes it harder to follow conversations in noisy environments, comprehend conversations or instructions, or understanding what people are saying. When I was in middle school this is the learning disability I was diagnosed with which allowed me to obtain an IEP and gain extra time on tests and a quiet location for taking tests. I had the option for taking resource classes but since I was functioning at and beyond grade level, it wasn't mandatory. It's still something to this day comes about, when I'm trying to concentrate on something and there's a lot of ambient noise it CAN become overwhelming and I need to do something about it - usually putting in headphones works for me. It was about learning to adapt and figuring out what works for me and do that.
Thank you for sharing your story!
I am learning a lot from your channel Stephen. My dad said that my mom used to blare the TV....maybe to drown out voices that she was hearing? Not sure. I have an individual at the group home that I supervise who is always asking that the radio be turned down when we are going on outings in the van. I will be mindful to ask her if any other specific noises bother her.
Thank you for sharing Melissa!
I find noise sensitivity is worse at times I’m already anxious. I can’t get into, or stay in my head to self soothe when someone’s asserting their need for noise. It’s almost an aggressive, obscene, or atleast selfish assertion when someone wants to dominate the conversation when it’s all I can do to actively get out of my head.
I might have an idea or two for you. I have AuDHD (autism/ADHD) diagnosed separately decades ago. I have hyperacusis (sensitivity to noise and a number of auditory processing disorders--such as hearing speech sounds in noise, but others). A little misphonia I think, because I hate whispering. Also was a special ed teacher for 35 years. I think what would be helpful is to contact an audiologist who is interested in hyperacusis and and misphonia. This is how I know about my problem. There is something called acoustic therapy (which wasn't available 30 years ago). It teaches the person about their sensitivities, works on auditory methods to help the situation and then works on conditioning to reduce anxiety and reactions like avoidance (can make it worse). So what you are doing with making those sounds on purpose is on the right track but possibly way too long. Steven is very motivated so he should do well with this. I'm replying with a great video I found. It's NOT all behavior/aka CBT, but I think part of the therapy is this.
Hi Steven I have been diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia since the early 90s and even since then and even since a young age have a problem with noise disturbance, so you not alone in this. I find that a good pair of headphones with a medication music or music of your choice changes and calms me down instead of having violent outbursts without them on where situations that arises like low bass music and repetitive noise like dogs barking that set me amongst other things similar to yours. Where I need to escape and get away or it drives me over the edge and unbalance my surroundings.
Thank you again Chris for sharing! I really appreciate it
I had it too during my psychosis but it wasnt that bad. For me it disapired after some time. Maybe it will be better in your case too. Right now I have realy big problems with cognitive symptoms and anhedonia. I wish you all the best brother, keep making more vids, they are rly good.
I totally deal with this but didn't know there was a name for it wow
Thank you McDizzle! Have a happy and healthy rest of your day! Thanks for watching!
My daughter has OCD acute” and loud sounds really stress her out also ,, my niece has mysophonia alone and she has to eat alone ‘
Thank you for sharing KMS. Thank you also for watching my videos and commenting!
Your welcome , it’s pretty refreshing to see meaningful, helpful content
I’m happy for you and your dad that these days “ for you are much better !!
Really comforting to watch your channel ,
Our whole world should be better educated about mental diseases !
Thank you again for all you bring !!
Happy Holidays !
I have Lyme Disease. When I was experiencing encephalitis from the disease I suffered greatly from aversion to sounds and noise. Could not listen to radio and complete aversion to tv specifically commercials.
“Sharp” sounds I.e. whistles and children squealing was very difficult to tolerate.
I feel u I’m going through the same thing
I think it is one of the types of a sensory overload.
Some people are oversensitive to an excess of a noisy stimulus, some are more sensitive to a visual noise ( a flickering lights or constantly jumping background in your video youtube channel can make them temporary stuporous, up to the point that they almost losing the awareness of surroundings)
By the way, it is typical for the temporal epilepsy as well.
I have schizophrenia and been diagnosed for over 10 years now too and I've noticed people that talk loud scramble my brain and I can't think properly, this usually triggers an angry response from me and the person who's being loud ends up annoyed at me for telling them to lower their voice saying they can't help it.
how do I tackle this because its becoming a problem as the person who's mostly noisy when hey talk is someone close to me all the time.
Thank you for sharing. And thank you also for joining my journey. I wish you the best in these difficult times.
Hello
My Question is, what is it like for you when your eating food yourself ?
If you were to crunch on chips - could you tell yourself whiles crunching that the noise is ‘others’ when it’s yourself- a way maybe to submerge yourself into it, to try overcoming it..
I Don’t suffer with this.
I have had severe misophonia for 47 years. As far as i know, for me, it cannot be cured. I have to avoid my trigger sounds. But my misophonia is not anxiety based. I think it might be neurological but misophonia has not been studied enough for anyone to know for sure. I am also Autistic and i know that lots of Autistic people also have misophonia.
Thank you very much for sharing. Have a happy and healthy rest of your day.
@@SurvivingSchizophrenia Thank you so much. You too. And I will keep your family in my thoughts and prayers. ❤️
I have misophonia as well, there’s good sensations that come from it as well, like asmr triggers. I attest it to my autism but I maybe mistaken.
Related to the noise sensitivity I am wondering if Stephen also has tinnitus? Thanks I think there is a connection. I've also seen this called hyperacousis. Not sure if that is the same as misphonia.
I don’t have tinnitus, however it is possible I may have hyperacausis and will look into it. Thank you!
Sounds similar to autism/auditory processing disorder. Hyperacusis and misphonia it's similiar but different. Here's my understanding-- my background is in special ed. and I'm AuDHD (adhd/autistic). I believe hyperacusis is sensitivity to sound and is actually better than average hearing. You might be sensitive to loud noises, certain pitches, etc. Autistic people often cover their ears for certain loud sounds and it helps. You may or may not have tinnitus. Misphonia is actually the dislike/aversion to certain kinds of sounds--the fingernails on the blackboard. For instance, I dislike whispering. But it's not a loudness/hurt your ears thing.
6:30, I have an Alexa echo dot, and I ask it to play light classical, meditation, or sleep music. I wonder if having this type of soothing music in the background would work for Stephen. Folk music is also very soothing to me. I hope this helps! :)
Thank you Carolyn! I use my Google Nest to play white noise at night when I’m sleeping.
The military and intelligence community is quite aware the loud noise of sustained continuous loops of repetitive auditory sounds or repetitive musical lyrics is an often used form of torture, i.e. psychic driving. Such torture triggered my twin brother's schizophrenia and ruined his life. So misophonia is a serious issue, because of the sensitivity of the inner ear.
Thank you for sharing
Noise canceling head phones is the best thing I’ve found to cope with misophonia triggers, being in stressful situations makes you hyper sensitive to various sensations. I suspect you maybe on the spectrum as well my friend.
I wonder what the difference is between noise sensitivity in autistic people and schizophrenic people.
I have misophonia i think I can’t stand the dish washer going off I can’t stand paper noises and I hate my dads breathing noises and can’t stand people doing the dishes with cleaning and I don’t know if it’s misophonia 😢
I guess I have to speak out on the issue here. Undiagnosed autism can lead to so called positive symptoms of schizophrenia due to repetive unreckognized traumatization, that appears when interacting with neurotypical people and the difference in sensory processing information. Did you ever consider it may be autism instead of schizophrenia? It's a complete different thinking style that clashes with society. That also may have caused the psychotic break, the anxiety and depression because internally you know you are different. Also when he said, you are not my dad, it's just a title, would fit into it that he realized the difference between you two. The aversion to going to church because it first of all doesnt make sense to an autist plus the exposure to a lot of people. And sensory processing issues regarding sounds. Maybe you should get a differential diagnosis, would get an autism expert involved because the standard psychiatrists are so bad at diagnosing autism. Could be asperger autism. Good luck to you both! (Also the fact that he has a memory back to when he was 9 months old speaks for it. You really should check it out. I'm not saying that he has autism but there are points that hint to it. The lack of memory was probably caused by the drugs, it's not typical for psychosis.)
Thank you for sharing. We are planning to make a video response about this.
Just wanna say... making the decision to trigger yourself because you know it will actually show everyone who watches this video what being triggered means. Not only for those with schizophrenia. In general what you have deals with on a dialy basis.. its real and it's important that people get educated on this illness. I've known several amazing people with this illness and idk I just think it was selfless, educational, and really cool of you to do that 😊
Thank you very much!
Have a look at "sensory gating". I think that's what you're describing.
Thank you. I will check into it!
Do you play a musical instrument? Maybe the piano? Music might be helpful if you played it yourself.