Do you sometimes get grossed out by people eating loudly? Or maybe you get annoyed when someone repetitively taps or clicks a pen? For me, those sounds trigger a negative emotional and physical response. 

Misophonia elicits excessively negative and immediate emotional and psychological responses to certain sounds that some people take little to no notice of. For me, my main trigger sound is hearing other people chew (ask anyone that knows me and they will tell you), but other triggers of mine include coughing, clearing the throat, clicking / tapping of pens, static noises, sniffling, slurping and the dragging of feet on the ground.

When I hear other people chewing, my fingers start to hurt or ‘get annoyed’ and so does behind my ears and near the saliva glands in my mouth. If the noise persists, I become enraged, and usually have to ask the person to stop, or if its someone in my family or someone I am really close with I lash out or yell and swear at them, and sometimes have ended up in tears.

I’m not overreacting, it is just the response that is wired into my brain, much the same as how you are wired to ignore the sound, or get grossed out by it.

It has now gotten to the point where sometimes I can’t sit at the same dinner table as my family due to the hypersensitivity to the noise. I know that my brother especially cops a lot from me (he is 14, obviously not his fault), but it gets to the point where full blown arguments have started.

I clearly remember another time we had take out in the car and I had to get my headphones and listen to music just so I could block out the sound of everyone else eating.

I think the hardest part about dealing with Misophonia is your friends / family / strangers not understanding. It’s worse when you try to explain to someone your hatred for the sound, and then they mock you by continuing to make the noise.

To truly understand what Misophonia is like, please watch the video below.

Misophonia is more than ‘not liking’ the sound of someone eating or clearing their throat. It triggers a very very negative response within you, which normally causes you to act out from your usual behaviour. It is also a major contributor to anxiety.

Hopefully this has opened your eyes into what it is like to deal with Misophonia on a daily basis.

See you in the next post!

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