The hypersensitivity to particular sounds which causes you to feel irritated and angry. It can be triggered by the sounds people make when eating or chewing or even by their breathing. My own sensitivity is in relation to the sounds of eating, in particular, people eating apples or chewing gum. The grip of irritability I would feel when listening to either of these sounds was overwhelming – I can only explain it as feeling as those I was freezing from my centre as my body got more rigid. It was as if all other sounds turned down just to amplify the crunch of the teeth into the apple, that moment when people skin their teeth into the apple. As for the lip smacking sounds of chewing gum, I just wanted to scream. Many times on the train I would actually move carriage in an effort to get away from the sounds. But this was not always possible and I could feel the anger rising in me. Like many of you, I wondered why others did not seem put out by these sounds of chewing which were causing me, if I were a cartoon figure to have smoke coming out my ears in annoyance.
Training as a hypnotherapist, I understood that I cannot change these sounds around me. These are things out of my control all that I can change is my response to them. Many journeys were ruined by the audacity of others to make noise eating in my presence! My secret is using self hypnosis on myself to keep my body relaxed – when we tense up this encourages the irritability to build into anger. I make the sound take on less importance in my head and give it a new goal, of relaxing me! To allow me to focus on my breathing. With hypnosis, the sound lessens and its effect on me is reduced.
If you would like to be more relaxed in terms of the sounds that cause you irritation, please contact me on 086 1038892. Appointments in Limerick.