Are you struggling with misophonia and doing everything you can to cope?

Are you struggling with misophonia and doing everything you can to cope—yet still find yourself losing it when someone smacks their gum or taps their foot over and over again?

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Let's break it down.

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What is misophonia?

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Misophonia is a condition where specific sounds trigger overwhelming emotional reactions—like anxiety, panic, disgust, or rage—that cause significant distress and disrupt daily life.

Certain sounds might spark intense reactions in you like:

• A wave of anger
• Panic
• Feeling like all you can think about is the sound
• Chest-tightening anxiety
• A racing heart
• Feeling like you hate the person making the sound
• Feeling completely trapped

To cope, you might find yourself:

• Avoiding meals with others
• Wearing noise-canceling headphones constantly
• Working from home to avoid office sounds
• Exploding in anger at the people closest to you
• Driving separately just to avoid carpooling
• Bolting from a room the second you hear a triggering sound

And over time, those coping strategies lead to something even harder:

• Disconnection from the people you love most
• Strained or damaged relationships
• Feeling isolated and completely alone in your struggle
• Constantly stuck in fight-or-flight mode, waiting for the next trigger
• A deep, exhausting sense of shame that something’s “wrong” with you

Sound familiar?

It might sound ridiculous to someone else—“Chewing gum bothers you that much?”—but if you know, you know. And if you’re reading this… you probably do know.

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So why aren’t more people talking about this?

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Misophonia isn’t yet formally recognized in the DSM-5 (the manual therapists use to diagnose mental health disorders). But that doesn’t mean it’s not real—and it doesn’t mean you have to keep suffering.

Because here’s the truth: Misophonia affects so many people—including me.

I’ve lived all those bullet points. I became very skilled at #coping—not healing. I felt trapped in an anxiety spiral no one seemed to understand.

But through my own training, healing work, and therapy, I finally found a way forward.

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I healed my misophonia by...

• Validating my experience instead of minimizing it
• Learning how to talk about it and advocate for myself
• Setting boundaries with people I love so I could feel safe
• Using EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing) to eliminate the distress triggered by specific sounds

And now, I help my clients find that same freedom.

Through our work together, I can help you:

• Feel understood and seen in your misophonia experience
• Learn self-compassion instead of shame
• Build real communication tools to talk to your people about what you need
• Use EMDR to finally release the distress tied to those sound triggers

If this resonates—please, reach out.

And if someone in your life came to mind while reading this, send this to them.

Too many people with misophonia are suffering silently.

But the truth is—there is hope. With the right support, healing is possible.

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With love and care, Amanda Snyder, LPCC & EMDR trauma specialist

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