Often during my childhood I felt overwhelmed and misunderstood. I didn't understand why noises could change my mood from happy to angry. Panic was frequently a precursor to lashing out or throwing a full 8 year old temper tantrum that was mostly brought on by some noise. I didn't know this was the case, I just knew I was overwhelmed and it was sudden and if I didn't escape it somehow I might explode. or that is how it felt during most of my older childhood.
My parents had no way of knowing that something was wrong, that I was struggling, because I had no way of telling them. I learned various self coping mechanisms and started to slowly control some aspects of misophonia. Sometimes it was worse and sometimes I improved, but I never had an understanding of what was going on.
My parents were helpful in many ways through these trying times.
They didn't let me be disrespectful or rude.
They didn't let me use excuses for my behavior (even if there were a legitimate reason I still chose to react in that way)
They showed grace, they let me blow up and stamp off and calm myself down.
They taught me to curb my temper (not a fast process)
They forgave.
My parents didn't have a name or reason that their child was acting so strangely. But they worked through it and helped be to become the person I am. To the parents of children that are diagnosed with misophonia, yes, they have a disorder, and yes you will need to be creative in how you deal with each issue that may arise. But don't stop training them to be contributing and functioning members of society. They need that too. They need to know that no matter the reasoning, being disrespectful is not okay, that misophonia is no excuse to be rude. I am thankful that my parents showed me how to funnel my negative feelings into other directions, because people are important to me, I need them and if I had continued thinking about them and treating them as the problem I would have struggled even more.
