Emotions Shape Reactions

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When individuals face overwhelming stimuli without their needs being met, such as a desire for calmness interrupted by noise, it can lead to heightened agitation and emotional responses. Sounds that were once tolerable can become triggers for anger, overwhelm, and shame, especially if those feelings are invalidated by others. This creates a cycle where the original emotional experience becomes embedded in the body, causing future reactions that feel disproportionate and confusing. Interventions like EMDR can help uncover and address these root emotional triggers, offering a pathway to healing and understanding.

Forks on teeth. Lip smacking. Metal on metal. (Don’t worry, there are no sonic examples of triggers in this episode!) Why do some of us haaaate certain noises and other folks cannot comprehend how a sound could be so irritating? Let’s meet in the middle with a professional Misophonologist, clinical psychologist, and Oxford University research fellow Dr. Jane Gregory. Dr. Gregory not only has misophonia, but has propelled research and public awareness of the condition. We lob so many questions to learn: what it feels like to have it, how many people experience it, the most common sounds that trigger it, what your brain thinks is happening, why certain people or situations may be worse than others, how to be helpful to people with misophonia, headphones, earplugs, exposure therapies, cognitive behavior therapy, experimenting on oneself, age and misophonia, and where zombies fit into it.

Visit Dr. Jane Gregory’s website and follow her on Instagram and X

Get her book, Sounds Like Misophonia: How to Stop Small Noises from Causing Extreme Reactions on Bookshop.org or Amazon

Read her papers on ResearchGate

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2024 #WorldLizardDay Programming with Dr. Earyn McGee