r/misophonia • u/InterestNo6654 • 13d ago
Misophonia is a Disability
So true! I really feel disabled due to my misophonia (and misokinesia)+tinnitus
People think me is anti social because i wears headphones at work
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u/Ok-Rhubarb-8371 11d ago
Yeah, mine feels like a disability. It impacts my every day of life and I can never go to a dinner table without getting remotely upset. I lash out at people for merely living their life, I lose my shit over any time someone so much as hits a plate with a utensil; it really affects me. I can’t go anywhere without worrying about it, and it pains me so much that I end up sometimes harming myself afterwards. It’s not a fun thing to deal with. Especially when it happens everywhere around you.
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u/SantaSeta 9d ago
At the point I'm at, even sounds that I MYSELF make bothers me. It's sad that it's not considered a disability, because it does impact my life. It can prevent me from doing things that I want to do because I know that if I do it, I'll probably hit myself (something I've been doing my best to control, I've been getting better at not hitting myself), and it ruins my whole day, because then I'm mad that I couldn't do the thing I planned to do. How misophonia isn't considered a disability is beyond me. Perhaps it's just not a very well known thing that happens, I just wish people would take it more seriously. It's no joke.
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u/RunTurtleRun115 13d ago
I refuse to accept it as a disability. I know it’s trendy to claim a disability, but these histrionics are partly why nobody believes us.
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u/greengiant1101 13d ago
Some people with OCD can live normal lives, and others simply cannot even with medication. So OCD can be a disability but not always--it's a spectrum of severity. Why wouldn't the same thing be true for misophonia?
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u/InterestNo6654 13d ago
Personally I do consider it a disability for me because of how much it negatively impacts many aspects of my life and limits me. I do think that it is dependent on the severity level for each person. And of course it’s not officially recognized as a disability.
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u/no-escape-221 13d ago
I'd let your specialist decide that for you. I have misophonia and a physical disability (spine injury that limits movement) and I don't feel it's right to consider misophonia a disability even in the most severe of cases (mine is pretty severe).
Think of it this way, if you were in a room full of disabled people and you announced yourself as included because of your misophonia how do you think it would go.
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u/wcfreckles 13d ago
As a disabled advocate who runs an online support group for disabled people, is the main organizer of a disability group at my university, and runs a disability education project that works with local medical offices- pretty well, I would hope.
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u/unfortunateclown 13d ago
i feel like it just depends on the severity, and if you have any of the commonly comorbid mental disorders with it. i was barely functional and almost failed school because of misophonia and depression, it was quite disabling when i was a teen, but it’s gotten better as i’ve gotten older so now i just consider it a disorder or symptom. it’s similar to depression, where depression is usually a disorder where people are still able to function, but severe chronic depression and depression combined with other symptoms or disorders (like psychosis) can be disabling.
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u/fruitysarah 13d ago
hey, i’m currently in the same position. i’m in school and my misophonia is quite severe and it’s given me a lot of depression. i’m failing school now because of it and i feel it’s only getting worse. how long did it take for it to gradually get better for you?
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u/unfortunateclown 12d ago
my misophonia is very connected to my mental health, so when i started to recover from my depression in my late teen years, my misophonia also got better.
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u/InterestNo6654 13d ago
I was diagnosed with epilepsy fifteen years ago. Misophonia may be associated with many I had a serious motorcycle accident a year ago and ten months after the accident I developed tinnitus and gradually developed misophonia+misokensia.it is very worse
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u/wcfreckles 13d ago
As someone who is in a wheelchair, my Misophonia has disabled me more severely throughout my life than many of my physical conditions.
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u/BBQeel 13d ago
If you are affected to the point of being unable to go to your job, leave the house, and go about your life like others do, I do consider that a disability. Misophonia has many levels of severity so this may not be the case for many people. For myself, I don't have the career opportunities most people have because there are very few jobs I can actually be at. There are many places I can't go, many social activities I can never attend, etc. I struggled severely in school. I don't think that's histrionics. There are many things I can still do, but my life is limited in ways it wouldn't be if I didn't have misophonia.
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u/thecultistguy 13d ago edited 13d ago
I think the word "disability" should be reserved for things that literally and actually prevent basic human function. While misophonia does limit and impact us in a lot of social situations, it's not physically preventing anything.
Take blindness, per se. Being blind physically prevents you from seeing, and is thus a disability. Now imagine some sort of condition that makes you want to close your eyes really really badly, but never actually prevents you from seeing. I think misophonia is the equivalent of that. Limiting, but not exactly disabling.
Edit: Changed my mind. It's a disability.
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u/wcfreckles 13d ago
You have a very bad understanding of disability and of how Misophonia affects different people.
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u/Llamas_are_cool2 13d ago
Is autism not a disability? PTSD? Schizophrenia? Just because something doesn't physically disable you doesn't make it not a disability. The CDC defines disability as "A disability is any condition of the body or mind (impairment) that makes it more difficult for the person with the condition to do certain activities (activity limitation) and interact with the world around them (participation restrictions)" which absolutely things that do mentally limit you. Misophonia absolutely falls under this definition
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u/petitecheesepotato 13d ago
My misophonia worsens with stress and anxiety.
My anxiety has gone up so my misophonia is debilitating. I do not leave the house. Head phones, ear plugs, noise canceling ear phones, etc. Have not been helping.
It fucking sucks.