Beware of these so-called misophonia ‘cures’…

by | Feb 12, 2016 | Articles | 3 comments

Beware of misophonia cures

One of the most extraordinary things about misophonia is just how little we know about it.

While it’s now a recognised disorder in many places it’s still massively underfunded, under-researched and misunderstood.

The current lack of regulation has made misophonia a prime target for abuse – both intentional and otherwise  – by an army of quacks, ‘have-a-go’ gurus and self-proclaimed experts.

Do some online research and you’ll find everything from hypnotherapy treatments and exposure therapy apps, to flat out ‘cures’.

Right now a lot of people are jumping on the bandwagon in the pursuit of financial gain, recognition and goodness knows what else.

Please do not waste your time or money on any of these so-called cures.

I hate to be the finger wagging harbinger of doom, but the truth is none of these techniques are properly tested in controlled environments by impartial observers under agreed conditions.

But if these techniques work, who cares, right?

I set up this website to help others to understand misophonia. To find ways to cope with and live with the condition.

If I had personally found that any of these techniques were a) safe and b) worked, I would be the first to let you know.

I would say: “Hey guys, it ain’t backed up by science yet, but this method seems to be working for me.” I would then go on to put in a truck load of disclaimers and warnings in place and make it very clear that this was just a working theory.

The problem is I can’t even do that, because they simply don’t work.

Worse still, they could be damaging.

It is incredibly irresponsible and dangerous for unregulated misophonia treatment centres and individuals (with a vested financial interest) to suggest that they have developed a proven cure or treatment when their methods are NOT supported by stringent and impartial research, trials and testing.

We don’t stand for it in other disciplines and we shouldn’t stand for it with misophonia.

If someone set up a website tomorrow and announced that they could cure cataracts by jumping up and down and whistling loudly, they’d be laughed right off the Internet (and rightly so).

But when it comes to neurological conditions… mental illness… behavioural problems (effectively anything that cannot be *seen*) people are far more susceptible to the slick promises of smooth talking salesmen.

Please stay savvy and steer clear of any unregulated quick fixes. I’ll point you towards as much independent research as I can on this site so that you can keep abreast of any developments in the field. If you want to read what some of the leading researchers are working on at the moment over at Duke, take a look here.

In the meantime you can be rest assured that if I hear about any genuine, independently verified and endorsed treatments I will let you know about it. You won’t even need to visit this site because you will hear me screaming about it from the rooftops.

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3 Comments

  1. Amanda

    I have suffered with this complaint for a long time and until a couple of years ago , I didn’t know it was a condition. I have had tinnitus for years and suffer with a mild form of bipolar which I don’t think helps. So many sounds and certain things people do make me so angry and I am nasty towards especially my mum.

    Reply
    • Allergic to Sound

      Hi Amanda, thanks for leaving a comment. It’s quite common for tinnitus to exist alongside misophonia, so don’t worry, you’re not alone. The good news is the best coping mechanisms are actually quite similar for both conditions. I read a helpful book about tinnitus here which was recommended to me by an audiologist: http://amzn.to/1ZFHvxQ – it might be worth taking a look. Make sure you let your mum know what it is that you’re going through, so that she’s knows that you don’t mean it!

      Reply
  2. Typicalanon

    Thank you for this advice. I almost paid for a service. Doctors and family convinced me otherwise, and funnily enough, I hardly have the monetary resources to afford such things in the first place. It was out of desperation I considered it. I have seen psychologists, psychiatrists, general practitioners for my misophonia…nobody can help. Nobody actually knows the answer. Most of them haven’t heard of it, those who have can’t fix it entirely, and others charge you an arm and a leg. It’s so bloody sad. In a condition where as you say, so many quacks and self-proclaimed experts rise to the surface as false light saviours, I relish in the truth of people who speak the truth. The truth is a bitter pill. It’s much harder to hear that there are no treatments for you, especially when you want to believe that there are. P.S. this reply is not supposed to be negative. But in my experience, to whoever is reading this, no treatment has worked for me so far. Medication, cognitive behavioural therapy (to this day, I have no idea how that BS is supposed to help…), mindfulness, headphones, white noise, hearing short audio recordings of key triggers at a reduced volume, telling myself it’s not real and wishing that when I wake up the next day it’s gone…no. None of it works. I have had it for two years now, and have met one other person with misophonia, who I felt genuine compassion and pain for. For the people who’ve benefited from the treatments I mentioned, I mean no disrespect and am relieved that they worked for someone. Finally!

    My personal theory on misophonia is this:

    It is a hyperconnectivity between the amygdala (fear processing) in the brain and auditory neural networks, where there is normally less neural connectivity. I believe it is some kind of conditioned response that develops for unknown reasons. In my case, I developed it after a lot of stressful events in life, including loss, grief, confusion, feeling down about lots of things that happened, plus, as I’ve recently realised, a lot of work with technology/online things. Could it be information overload? I don’t know. Could it be emotional exhaustion? Again, I don’t know. I am trying to present every bit of information I can in the event someone out there identifies a common thread, and hones in on it.

    Unknown reasons – people usually seem to develop misophonia in early childhood. This was not the case for me, as I developed it as an adult. Was this a less frequent disorder in the past? Or is it just becoming better known? Dammit I wish I just had the answer in this endless riddle.

    Reply

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