Are Certain Sounds Driving You Crazy?

Have you noticed as you’ve gotten older that you are more sound sensitive, or less sound tolerant? Maybe you’ve described it as “sound irritated,” in that certain sounds send you through the roof!? I certainly have. Turns out, this is a thing. There are two main categories when evaluating sounds and how they impact your body - Misphonia and Hyperacusis.

Misophonia is an intense dislike or hatred of specific sounds, which can trigger strong negative emotions, physiological responses, and behaviors.

Common triggers include chewing, breathing, sniffing, tapping, crunching, slurping, smacking, tv or music volume, street noise, vacuum cleaner, snoring, clipping or filing fingernails, dogs barking, crinkling paper, leaf blower, slamming doors, etc.

Hyperacusis occurs when everyday sounds are perceived as excessively loud and uncomfortable or painful to your ears. It can cause distress and avoidance of noisy environments because everything Is too loud.

While they sound alike (pun sort of intended), they are techincally different.

Hyperacusis is specifically about It being too LOUD and thus painful for your ears.

Misphonia triggers cover a wide variety of sounds, usually those made by people. While loudness may play a role, It’s secondary.

Here’s an example.

Let’s say you’re watching tv with your family. If you have Hyperacusis, the tv Is too loud to you and actually uncomfortable or painful to your ears at that volume but not to your family.

If you have Misphonia, the tv volume may not bother you, but your husband slurping his soup while watching tv Is annoying AF and causing you to feel angry. His slurping doesn’t cause your ears to feel uncomfortable or pain but he’s about to feel pain if he doesn’t stop with that noise.

Can this be related to hormones?

Yes. While there are other reasons to explore, changing estrogens AND progesterone play a role In hearing health and sensory processing. They are have a huge influence over the neurotransmitters in your brain that impact your sensory nerves.

Even the health of your nervous system plays a role In your perception of these triggers. Research shows the more stressed your body feels, the more your stress system is overloaded or on-edge, the more triggered you will feel with those noises.

Sadly, there is not a lot of research, especially on women, related to misphonia or hyperacusis. This article is a great basic overview of what they think is going on and some treatment ideas. Unfortunately, they did not evaluate hormone therapy or have a discussion of the menopausal transition. I can tell you from my social media comments and the Reddit boards, that women going through their 40’s and 50’s absolutely noticed a change in their noise tolerance!

What are the treatment options?

So far, treatment ideas include noise canceling headphones, ear plugs, cognitive behavior therapy (CBT) and EMDR, gradual sound exposure, mimicking what the person is doing (eg. also chew gum, also eat soup, also crunch chips, etc), educating those around you what you’re experiencing, leaving the room or area with the noise, etc. Consider seeing an audiologist and having a hear exam if you’re experiencing pain.

As an integrative, holistic doctor, I think stress management and nervous system regulation is hugely important here as well. If your bucket is full, that barking dog or lip smacking child is going to cause an overflow situation. Lastly, I will be curious if hormone therapy has a positive influence!