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Misophonia can add challenges to family dinners during holidays.

Accommodations can help families with misophonia members enjoy events.

Food-free traditions, quiet spaces, headphones, and breaks can help.

The dinner table is often a battleground for families where one or more members experience the misophonic response. I know this all too well as a sufferer of misophonia. Holidays are fraught with experiences that can cause sensory dysregulation, including frequent family dinners, blinking lights, loud music and events, and more. So, I ask, is the point of the festivities to spend time together regardless of the emotional aftermath, or is the purpose to spend meaningful time together?For those who suffer from misophonia, holiday dinners can be a painful experience. Misophonia is a neurophysiological condition where otherwise normal sounds like chewing, whistling, coughing, and more cause a physiological fight-or-flight-or-freeze response. This condition was named in 2001 by Drs. Pawel and Margaret Jastreboff, and despite a growing body of research, it has not yet made it into diagnostic manuals worldwide. More recently, misophonia has been linked to neurodivergent experiences, such as sensory processing differences and autism.The term misophonia means "hatred of sound,"........

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