Connor’s Story

Connor, age twenty-four, came to the clinic for treatment of misophonia with severe auditory triggers of chewing, sneezing, mouth breathing, and smacking lips, and a visual trigger of someone touching their glasses. He had developed misophonia while serving in the Marines in Afghanistan two years earlier. He reported that he also had a current diagnosis of PTSD. In Afghanistan, it was common to go on patrol as a squad, and upon returning to base to be in close quarters for eating. When tested for his initial physical misophonic reflex, his head visibly turned to the right, and he reported that he felt contraction of the muscles in his right arm and made a fist. The response was the same whether the trigger sound originated from his left or right side. This response seems similar to orienting to a sound of danger on his right side. The misophonic triggers did not elicit PTSD responses.