How would i go about getting a diagnosis for misophonia, and getting white noise generating hearing aids? (Please tag as Tal)
Thank you for getting in touch with us here at MHA! I don’t personally struggle with misophonia but I spent several years living with someone who was attempting to get some professional help for her misophonia, so I do hope I’ll be able to shed some light on the subject for you.
According the the DSM-5 (the manual doctors and specialists use to diagnose mental health conditions), misophonia is not a diagnosable condition. However, many health care professionals are aware of the condition and will aid in treatment for it!
The best thing you can do is be persistent in seeking help from your doctor. If you can make an appointment and confidently and fully explain your symptoms, especially the issues with your hearing, for example being sensitive to the volume of sounds. You may also want to mention how it affects you emotionally, like if certain sounds cause you to become anxious and/or upset, but try to focus more on the auditory aspects as they are more easily recognised by a non-specialist doctor. It is also important that you express that you want to seek help from an audiologist as your doctor should be able to refer you.
An audiologist will be able to make a full examination of your auditory organs, processing, and the psychology behind your condition. Although they too cannot specifically diagnose misophonia as a condition, they will offer catered treatment to you which is similar to that of auditory processing disorder. This may be a combination of occupational health which will help you to manage symptoms and provide coping mechanisms (they will also be able to provide the white noise hearing aids) and CBT to help you to manage the psychological impact this is having on you. I do just want to say that I only have experience with this in the UK and this is the process we follow here, I’m not 100% sure how similar this process would be in other countries. Wherever you are your best way to get some professional help for your misophonia is to go to an hearing specialist, audiologist, or ears, nose and throat, doctor :)
Distraction techniques may be of some use to you until you are able to seek some further help. We have a page of them here that you may want to take a little look at. I’m sure you are aware that using headphones can be a great way to block outside noise out, but that isn’t always a viable option so other distraction techniques may be helpful. My friend found that doodling on pieces of scrap paper was most helpful as not only way she focusing on the picture she was drawing, but she could focus on the noise of the pen on the paper which was easier than outside noise. It may take some trial and error for you to find the most effective distraction techniques for you, but after some perseverance, hopefully something will make this a little easier for you.
I hope this has been of some use, love. Please don’t hesitate to get back in touch if there is anything else that we can do to help you! Take care.
