Misophonia and OCD

Many of you heard about and maybe watched the 20/20 program on kids with OCD (Obsessive Compulsive Disorder) that aired on Friday, May 23, 2014. (If you missed it, go to ABC.com, click on 20/20, and you’ll be able to watch it online. I think it requires a sign-up to watch immediately, or no restrictions if you wait a week.)

The producers have been following some children with extreme anxiety for several years, watching them come apart and try to get put back together. Previous episodes have shown therapy sessions in which the child with contamination obsession (who cannot bear to be near her parents) works with a therapist using gentle, progressive exposure to a parent on the other side of the room, painstakingly moving an inch closer each time. Eventually, over the course of several weeks, she is able to sit by both parents, and to touch and be touched by them. It is so difficult to watch this excruciatingly slow process that I wanted to jump up and shriek “Hallelujah!” when she finally succeeded, and especially when she was able to return to her favorite activities.

But the most exciting thing about this update is the report about brain research on OCD. MRIs were actually able to pinpoint the specific area of the brain related to the problem — and even to see that germ obsession and fear of going out show up differently on the scans.

How is any of this relevant to misophonia? I don’t know that it is, but I do know that many, many people with misophonia also have symptoms of OCD. Examples would be the need to have certain things in perfect order: books lined up by size or color; or pictures hanging straight on the wall; or any small item that is crooked having to be moved back in alignment. There is nothing at all wrong with wanting things to be orderly. The problem arises when the person feels compelled to fix something that does not feel right, and cannot concentrate or let go of the idea of the thing being wrong until corrected. The thing begins to control the person, rather than the other way around.

With so many miso people also experiencing OCD, it is natural to wonder if they are somehow related. Perhaps the brain structure or wiring are connected. Or maybe there is a genetic component, something that a parent’s brain will show that is also present in the child. Many people with misophonia see a family history of similar problems with sound, to varying degrees. 

The exciting thing to me is that if they have come this far with MRIs and OCD, I think misophonia will not be far behind in the research. Just knowing that other people experience similar symptoms is a huge relief to most misophones. How much more wonderful will it be when the specific cause is actually pinpointed?

In my working with many kinds of anxiety disorders, I have developed a few strategies to help with OCD. I will write about them in another post.