I don't know if I am alone here, but since lockdown I have genuinely struggled more with my misophonia. (a condition where you are triggered by certain noise/movement - more details in a previous blog)
I suppose in lockdown I was in control of everything. Even easier that I was on maternity leave so had complete freedom in where I chose to be; not that I could go far in a pandemic. But what I mean is, when you are at work and in an open plan office, you will naturally notice trigger sounds; the habits of others, the noises of certain machines if they are close by or the odd person eating with their mouth open in the cafeteria.
With the easing of lockdown I can tell that the past year has been relatively stress free in terms of annoying noises.
But now life is returning to normal, it seems like people have lost general etiquette or manners. At the risk of sounding old, who are all these people on public transport playing on their phones or tablets with the volume on high. It was bad enough before when the volume was as loud as could be and they'd wear headphones and you could just hear the ch ch ch beat coming through but no idea what song was actually playing.
When we flew to Menorca, there were sooo many people doing this. The odd child watching peppa pig (who I can't stand at the best of times - everything you wouldn't want your child to be like, but I'll leave my peppa pig ranting for another day), a man playing a game and a few others watching youtube clips. Perhaps I could cope with one lot of noise going on, but to have it come at you from different directions was hard.
I will definitely head for the 'quiet' zones when using public transport again, although I have only ever seen this on a train.
I notice that when I am in these situations I feel so much more agitated for the rest of the day, which is made even harder having 2 children and not getting any down time at all during the day to try to destress.
I will see how the next few weeks go. Now I am back at work and working from home I am getting out of the house much less, so hopefully that will make a difference.
Is anyone else experiencing similar? If so, what helps you?
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