Step Away from the Routine

Misophonia requires being adaptable and accepting the unexpected.

“Maybe we misophones were more effective nomads, moving on to a new setting every few weeks as seasons and resources changed.”

While most college classrooms don’t have assigned seats, there’s an unspoken rule that where you sit on the first day of class is where you should sit all semester.

And for people with misophonia—especially misokinesia—picking that ideal spot can be what determines their final grade.

But those perfect seats, the ones with no distracting triggers, are a rarity.

So, we cope as best we can with the triggers we come to expect in that environment, each day donning our earplugs and blocking our vision with increasing urgency. We become more effective at expecting the triggers, but so does our misophonia, tensing our muscles and starting that fight-or-flight response as soon as we reach the triggering part of our routine.

So I say: to hell with the routine!

To hell with the social expectation of unchanging!

Rather than timeboxing and simply making it through the days until the situation will change, I make each day a little different to keep my misophonia guessing.

I survived K-12 by counting down the days until I would graduate and be free of the triggering environment. But guess what? I still have to deal with triggers every day.

But instead of simply waiting my life away in the hopes that the next thing—vacation, graduation, retirement, you name it—will save me (it won’t), I make sure that no day feels exactly the same.

Yes, switching to a different seat every class spurs some judgy looks. But so does wearing earplugs! At the end of the day, we need to do what we can to manage. And even if that means doing something as simple as rotating your desk a few degrees or eating something different for breakfast, I find it helps to change up every day.

After all, repetition plays a big role in misophonia, and that’s the base of what routines are: repeating!

Maybe we misophones were more effective nomads, moving on to a new setting every few weeks as seasons and resources changed. Or maybe that’s just me. 

But if your routine turns your life into no more than moving from one trigger to the next, that’s no way to live: change something.