Misophonia and Sound/Feeling Synesthesia

[Guest guest]

I was just reading about synesthesia, which is a a neurological condition in

which stimulation of one sensory or cognitive pathway leads to automatic,

involuntary experiences in a second sensory or cognitive pathway.

For example, people can see sounds as shapes, and attribute color to letters and

numbers, or taste, hear, smell things in response to other stimuli like sounds,

words, just about anything that can be sensed can be mixed up with another

sense.

So I was thinking of sound/feel synesthetic experiences, and how it might be

related to or correlate with people who also have misophonia.

We all tend to feel very strong emotional reactions to our trigger

sounds/visuals, but what does it feel like physically, or does it evoke other

sensory responses?

We've recently talked about other sensory sensitivities (touch, sight), but what

about sensory cross-mixing?

I can definitely " feel " loud, intrusive sounds, and I always just though it was

a startle-response similar to the fight-or-flight response in our emotional

reactions to triggers.

For example, a loud door slam, makes me jump through my skin, but I can feel it

like a thing that's slamming inside my body. It's very uncomfortable. Like I

feel it in my blood.

My trigger sounds might not all be so loud that they startle me like that, but

they evoke a different kind of, but similar, response - more like a gnawing,

compounding, growing, and fearful feeling of not being able to tolerate it, must

get away.

One other lady in this group described her misophonia like a wad of tissue paper

being thrown at her body, then more and more raining down on her, then they're

heavier pebbles that just won't stop, and I thought that was a good way of

describing how it might " feel " for us that are sensitive to all sounds, not just

the trigger sounds.

Is it hyperacusis? Is it a symptom of the misophonia, or is it synesthesia?

Who knows...all I know is that I feel like I have a new name for these

experiences I've been having all my life, and many people to share it with now.