literally memes about misophonia

edward he/him | i have crippling misophonia so i might aswell make memes out of it

[misophoniamemes]

“why is everyone so loud?” i say, as i blast rock music through my headphones to block it out

[misophoniamemes]

as a coping strategy for misophonia, i sometimes count the amount of sounds i hear and note it down. it reminds me that i’m not overreacting, and gives me a different reaction instead of flinching/aggression/anxiety so i can keep my brain busy

the boy who sits next to me saw me making this tally, and he asked me what i was counting. so i told him, and he said “i actually started guessing, so i started counting with you. i kept wondering ‘did you get those two?’” and it’s one of the best reactions i’ve got to having miso. instead of making me uncomfortable, he turned it into a game

i told him about miso and he was quite understanding of it, it was really refreshing after my past experiences with people reacting to my miso when it’s triggered

[dirkgentlyafterdark]

[misophoniamemes]

no one:

neurotypical eating crips:

[misophoniamemes]

"But putting your earphones in means you won't be able to hear us"

[misophoniamemes]

non misophonics: oh i get that!! i hate when people chew loudly

me: reacts when non misophonics make a bad noise

non misophonics:

[misophoniamemes]

misophonia questions!

Send me an ask with a number, you know the drill

1. How long have you been experiencing symptoms of misophonia?

2. Biggest triggers?

3. Favourite coping mechanism(s)?

4. Any visual triggers?

5. Headphones or earphones?

6. How do your friends feel about your misophonia?

7. Did/does misophonia affect your grades?

8. Has misophonia affected your relationships?

9. Do you have a favourite brand of earplugs/earphones?

10. Any advice for other misophonics?

11. What level would you consider your misophonia?

12. What's in your bag to help you?

13. Do you use creativity as a coping mechanism (writing, art, makeup etc)?

14. How do your family feel about your misophonia?

15. Do you have a "safe" quiet place?

16. Do you see therapy or take medication for misophonia?

17. Any misophonia blog recommendations?

[misophoniamemes]

When you find a misophonia meme that describes your exact situation

[misophoniamemes]

My fight or flight instinct ready to fucking throw hands when someone won’t stop coughing

[misophoniamemes]

Great British Bake Off more like Dinner With Misophonia

[misophoniamemes]

This user is misophonic and just wants to eat a fucking SANDWICH

[misophoniamemes]

This user is misophonic and is terrified for hayfever season

[junipeach]

Hey warning if ur misophonic, be cautious if u go n see The Quiet Place, not bc of the movie content but if u see this silent ass movie in a crowded theater w loud breathing popcorn eating ppl,,,, its a lil rough buddy

[misophoniamemes]

Wait until it's on Netflix y'all, don't hurt yourself

[misophoniamemes]

when you have your earphones in but there's too many visual triggers

[misophoniamemes]

When people think they're funny by triggering you but you whip out the Ear Plugs

[strongfromourveryweakness]

Biological Basis for Misophonia (Explained in Layman’s Terms)

A groundbreaking study about misophonia was released this year by Dr. Sukhbinder Kumar and his team from the Institute of Neuroscience at Newcastle University and the Wellcome Center for NeuroImaging at the University College London and has changed the game when it comes to discussing this misunderstood neurological condition. 

It’s so interesting, so fascinating to people with backgrounds in psychology and neurology, but to the commonperson? Words like “ventromedial prefrontal cortex”, “amygdala”, and “myelination” might as well be in a completely different language. 

And I know that most people with misophonia would absolutely love to be able to understand what’s wrong with them, so that’s why I’m doing this. Strap yourselves in, we’re taking a crash course in miso-psychology!

Some Words You Should Know Before We Get Started So You’re Not Totally Lost:

- Frontal Lobe:

This is the brain part in the very front. It is important because it controls emotions, problem-solving, memory-language, judgement, and the birds and the bees. The control panel, if you will. 

- Cerebral Hemispheres: 

Think of a hemisphere as half of a globe. Your brain is the globe (the word cerebral come from cerebrum, which is your brain), and the hemispheres are the two halves; left and right. 

- Myelin and Myelination: 

Myelin is an insulating substance that covers special nerves in the brain that send information. (Kind of like those chutes at drive-through banks you send your money through.) The more myelin is covering the chutes, the faster and more vroomwhoosh the information can send. More myelin is like high-speed Internet. 

- Ventromedial Prefrontal Cortex (vmPFC): 

Don’t panic, this is just a big word that tells us exactly where on the brain this part is. “Ventro-” on the underside of the brain, “-medial” in the middle, “Pre-” before, “-frontal” in the frontal lobe, “cortex” center. So it’s on the underside of the brain, in the middle, and on the very tip of the frontal lobe. It actually sits right above the eye-socket. VmPFC for short, this part of the brain helps keep emotions like fear and empathy in line and helps you make decisions. 

- Salient: Important, or relevant. 

- Stimuli: Sensory information coming into the brain through your eyes, ears, nose, mouth, or skin.

- Anterior Insular Cortex (AIC): 

“Anterior” in the front, not posterior, “insular cortex” the area of the brain in the middle (imagine a baseball in a mitt - the baseball is the insular cortex and the mitt is the rest of the brain). This part of the brain is on the front of the insular cortex and does a lot of things. The AIC decides what stimuli is salient. This part of the brain helps process emotions. It also arranges all the sensory information you’re taking in so that you have a good picture of what’s going on in the world around you. Believe it or not, but how you experience the world is all related to how your senses are processed!

- The Amygdala: 

The area of the brain where the fight-or-flight response is started. Fight-or-flight is what kept humans alive in the caveman days where the rustling in the bushes could be a bunny, but could also be a tiger. 

The amygdala is located in the insular cortex we talked about above and assigns salience to sensory stimuli so you can be ready to run in case it’s not a bunny, but a tiger. 

Now That That’s Settled, What Causes Misophonia?

Okay. So the first thing that Kumar’s team notes through their MRI studies is that people with misophonia have a ton of myelin in their vmPFCs. This means that people with misophonia have vmPFCs that function much faster than the average person. Also, the vmPFC is an area that has a ridiculous amount of information bank-chutes to many other areas of the brain.

 Like the areas which process memories, smells, and most importantly, the amygdala. If the vmPFC and the amygdala are talking more than usual? There can be trouble. And that trouble is spelled M-I-S-O-P-H-O-N-I-A. 

This study also found that people with miso also have greater activation in the AIC when they hear trigger sounds. 

Remember how I mentioned that the AIC is responsible for putting together a picture of your reality based on the sensory information you’re picking up? Imagine if for whatever reason, the AIC decides that grandma chewing gum is important. 

Then the amygdala, for whatever reason, thinks that because grandma’s gum-chewing is important, it must be a tiger in the bushes and you gotta be ready to run. 

Then the vmPFC gets confused and thinks it needs to be angry about it because together with the amygdala, they’re not processing emotions the way that they should be.

 Before you know it, the misophonia sufferer, through no fault of their own, is experiencing the anxiety of being chased by a tiger when they know full well grandma’s gum-chewing sounds aren’t a tiger; and in addition, they’re really freaking angry about it.  

To me, this research is fascinating because it confirms everything I have felt as a misophonia sufferer. I have felt like an idiot because I know full well that my classmate eating chips isn’t going to hurt me. But my body is responding like the noise is actually a threat to my bodily safety. This is because my brain doesn’t see reality as reality, and even though I know that, my brain doesn’t. 

And before anyone tries to say, “Well if you know it’s not going to hurt you, can’t you decide to not be bothered by it?” let me say this: the brain is an organ. It’s part of the body. You can’t just decide to not have cancer because you know you don’t need to grow a tumor right there. Your body thinks it does, but you’re not thinking for your body.

I hope that this post helps to clear up questions about what misophonia is, because it is a very complicated and unbelievable-sounding disorder. And though you may not be a scientist, my hope is that after reading this, you may be able to better understand what’s going on in your body and feel more in the loop with the current research. 

(Original artwork by Stephan Thomas Vomacka not to be independently posted elsewhere without credit being given.)

References:  Brout, J. (2017, February 04). Misophonia Breakthrough Study. Retrieved September 20, 2017, from https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/noises/201702/misophonia-breakthrough-study-0

[misophoniamemes]

Time for Pippa is nice to people again!!

This shit is so important and i strongly recommend if you're in education you print this out or turn it into an email document and send it to teachers or the safeguarding team. When i was in highschool i was constantly harassed in the corriodors by kids taking the bloody time to stand in a line and cough, sniffle and make other noises as i walked down and the teachers said i was faking it and just made me stand outside the class when i had a meltdown like i had done something wrong.

Misophonia is a rare psychological disorder and that's how it should be treat

[misophoniamemes]

Hell yeah i'm into metal music

[misophoniamemes]

A girl in my class kept breathing heavily and sniffing and this was my thought process

Suicidal misophonic me: can i die now

Homicidal misophonic me: no, can you die now

Genocidal misophonic me: no, what if we both died. That's fucking brilliant.