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Posted 7/27/2015 9:41 AM (GMT 0)
Throwing this out there:

My boy is 8 and has a condition called "Misophonia".
Misophonia, literally "hatred of sound", is a rarely diagnosed disorder, commonly thought to be of neurological origin, in which negative emotions (anger, flight, hatred, disgust) are triggered by specific sounds.
He becomes enraged at certain sounds ie., chewing gum, eating, smacking, crying, loud motors, and various others. It's so bad that sometimes he bursts out in tears and covers his ears.

I was wondering has anyone else heard of a connection between Misophonia and Lyme? Thanks.
Posted 7/27/2015 1:54 PM (GMT 0)
I've had a mild case of misophonia since I was a child. I would be annoyed by chewing/smacking noises in particular but it never had any real impact on my life. Then I got Lyme and it became a 100 times worse. Now hearing someone chew makes me furious. It's very strange but you have no control over it. Your hearing zones in on the offending noise and it feels like your blood is boiling. Sometimes I really have to resist the urge to punch the chewing person in the face, it's awful.

I've solved it mostly by always playing music in the background while eating. I haven't told anyone about this so my family probably thinks I'm a bit weird with the music I just didn't know how to explain it. Maybe you can get him some loose fitting headphones, that way he can have music playing to drown out noises but he would still be able to hear you.
Posted 7/27/2015 2:01 PM (GMT 0)
Many people with Lyme or Lyme imitators (Fibromyalgia, etc) have difficulty with loud sounds.
Posted 12/28/2015 10:43 PM (GMT 0)
I'm not sure if this forum has a policy on bringing back old threads, but I found this when google searching Lyme and Misophonia.

I've had misophonia my whole life, but I believe it's become a thousand times worse. It's rather unbearable. While loud sounds startle me, this is something completely different. Soft, personal noises- breathing, chewing, sipping, throat clearing, make me experience the worst, pure rage I could imagine. Also, the feelings of disgust and revolt are huge. It's worse for people who are close to me. For example, strangers in a coffee shop can really annoy me, but my father in law/husband etc? I have to leave the room immediately. I mean, IMMEDIATELY and the rage will linger for a few minutes.

It's gotten so bad lately, I've started cutting my skin with my fingernails to deal with the mental/neuro agony of hearing these sounds. Trust me, I know how ludicrous this all sounds.

On the plus/swap side, I also have ASMR which is an intensely pleasant reaction to certain sounds!
Posted 12/28/2015 11:32 PM (GMT 0)
Well, I'm sure glad that it's not all a negative reaction to sounds! That's hard.

I've had the misophonia, although I was never actually diagnosed with it. It sounds like you have a lot of Neuro issues happening - I'm sorry, I know that's miserable. I used to go to the grocery store with a very large brimmed "floppy" hat on, ear plugs or my MP3 player on, and sunglasses in order to get through the store without having a complete meltdown. It was that those things caused an over stimulation for me, and my nervous system was not kind to me when it happened.

I would suggest that you find other ways to deal with it though. Ear plugs, listening to my MP3 player softly to soft music and other distractions helped me a lot - it kind of kept me from focusing on the irritating noises.

Oh, and you can bring up old threads - that's what they are there for, as long as you understand that some or all of the people posting in old threads may not be around any longer.
Posted 12/29/2015 12:11 AM (GMT 0)
I have this too, and it got worse over the past couple years. Even now, its still a big problem. I have to have the tv on pretty loud when I eat, since even my own chewing drives me nuts.

Noise canceling headphones help a lot. I have a pair from AudioTechnica, but Bose and a couple others make them. It takes a little experimenting to figure out which ones work the best for me. I can't really do earplugs, since I also have tinnitus. Earplugs cut the outside noise....but magnify the tinnitus.

One tip....if you want to see a movie, go to an AMC theater. They have assistive listening devices....basically a device that gives you the dialogue and music from the movie delivered to a set of headphones. You can plug your own noise canceling headphones in. That way you can experience the movie without having issues.
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