Uggh, the moist sounds! It is very hard to have compassion at a silent retreat with all that breathing! Or mindful eating? Forget it. I am curious what you mean about “misophonia is learned?”. I only realized it was a thing when my son developed it at 11. I’m also pretty sure my father had it. I thought it was an inherited neurological condition.
there's probably genetic susceptibility to it, but it generally involves some sort of specific trigger and learned association with it, which is why it presents differently in many people. this article gets into the etiology more, but it's still not totally clear! https://asteriskmag.com/issues/09/the-unbearable-loudness-of-chewing
I find it interesting that my misophonia of slurping or other eating sounds is confined to humans. My dogs or any dogs that I hear making eating noises I have no problem with and even enjoy.
Yes! Vocal fry. I can never understand why people (girls and women) speak like this. Just PLEASE stop! Now!! Chewing, slurping, clipping nails, smacking, etc. drive me absolutely wild.
The Misophonia trigger I have is repetitive sounds. Pen tapping, the same drumming pattern, the clanking sound from putting away dishes, incessant barking, playing scales on an instrument… all good examples.
Mouth noises (swallowing, which always sounds like gulping to me, chewing, slurping, lip smacking, teeth sucking, heavy breathing, et al). Whether people, dogs, or any other living creature is doing these gross things, it turns my stomach, and I am always shocked that everyone else is seems to not notice. For decades, I wondered what was wrong with me until I first read about this some time ago and felt somewhat relieved.
Those biological warning sounds, indicative, anthropologically speaking, of contagion, are to me, merely annoying. What makes me dream of getting a flamethrower and nuking the noise is the sound of generators or machinery running. Leafblowers. Washing machines. Refrigerators. I can't be in stores whose beverage sections roar. And "calming white noise" puts me into panic mode. It made sense when I asked myself why loud noises like a truck backfiring or fireworks didn't upset me. It seems that continual noise without a break makes it impossible to hear anything else in the environment like someone sneaking up on you or a pleasant sound like birdsong or a breeze rustling leaves.
I am glad I am not too adverse to moist sounds. My trigger is vacuum cleaners. It sounds forlorn. I guess that is because I only heard it when I had to stay home from school sick.
Curious. As a kid I used to love the sound of my mum vacuuming downstairs after I was put to bed at night. I found an audio recording on YouTube of 'vacuuming in the next room' that is very similar, it is bliss to me!
I really like this take. I have an odd form of (what I refer to as) misophonia. Since being super young, I have had an aversion to *any* sound my granda makes (barring speaking normally). His humming, tapping, “silly” voices and especially his whistling sent me into an unwatchable rage. As a young child, back when I didn’t understand how to manage I would hit things around me, or even myself. It still happens now and has extended to other triggers like road rage and people dragging there feet or yawning loud. Glad to say that as it’s sad my granda elicits this reaction, I’ll be trialling EMDR therapy in a few weeks!
I didn't realise this was a recognised condition until a couple of years ago. My misophonia reaction is to the gurgling sound of boiling water, in a pan or a kettle as it reaches boiling point. The longer I hear it the more irritable and the angry I become. I can just about tolerate the kettle as it will shut off few seconds into boiling but a pan of spuds on the boil drives me mad to the point I'm compelled to shut it off or leave the room! People who eat and breathe noisily irritate me as well, but don't induce anything like the reaction boiling water does, which feels irrational.
I don't get 'moist' thing at all, it seems as ridiculous as people who get bent out of shape about pineapple on pizza!
As a jug player, I have been on the receiving end of misophonia on more than one occasion. For an example of what a jug sounds like, this tune begins with and features a splendid example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9X4JwNvjLWQ
So here's my epiphany regarding misophonia: create a musical ensemble comprised entirely of sounds that trigger people subject to it.
Ever since forever, I cringed when folks sniffed. My entire 64 years I have swithced seats, glanced in agony at the perpetrator, and sighed heavily at the sheer bad manners. Once I threw a box of kleenex in the law library at the serial sniffer. Blow your effing nose! IT IS NOT US, IT IS THEM.
My father struck me in the sternum when I was 7, as I bit onto a potato chip, without warning. The whack was the first warning and I still had that first chip in my mouth. "Chew with your mouth closed" he said. I remember thinking that was a bit of an unnecessary response after only having just put the chip into my mouth and more than the actual strike, my feelings were quite hurt. Fast forward about two decades and I lose my eyesight (not from the chip punch) and what I didn't know was misophonia at the time goes turbo. Alongside the turbo misophonia, I also find I now have synesthesia. My brain interprets sounds as both lights and textures. It's like the feeling of running your hand across a coarse surface accented by jagged points. the light reminds me of one of those music visualizers with bouncing colors and forms moving through my brain. It's been over 20 years now since the sight loss, 40 years since the "warning" and the misophonia/synesthesia combo seems to be worse when I'm fatigued or stressed. I even listen to music when I'm eating a meal by myself so I don't have to hear me chewing.
While I detest the sound of breathing—especially *mouth* breathing—my worst triggers are humming and whistling, which send me into a RAGE. Before I ever heard the word “misophonia,” I tried explaining how whistling made me feel, and all I could come up with was that it made me feel violent. Perhaps that’s because my most common “fight-flight-freeze-fawn” stress response is “fight.” Or, perhaps it’s that humming and whistling are volitional acts, and I resent it when people willfully produce *noise pollution* and impose/inflict it on others because they want to self-soothe. I even feel that barely-audible “atonal whistling” is unacceptable because people just don’t need to make those sounds at all! Anyway, thank you for this article. I look forward to reading more as you continue looking into misophonia. I read somewhere that researchers have found people who suffer from misophonia have more connections and activity in and between certain areas of their brains. That makes sense to me because nobody in my family has any aversion to humming or whistling.
You may be heartened to know that none other than Winston Churchill had a famous whistle aversion:
Churchill’s lifelong aversion to whistling is amusingly recounted by his bodyguard Walter Thompson in his 1953 book, Sixty Minutes with Winston Churchill. Approached near Downing Street by a young boy of about fifteen, hands in pockets and whistling loudly, Churchill called to him in a sharp, stern voice: “Stop that whistling!”
Looking up at the Prime Minister with utter unconcern, the youngster answered, “Why should I?”
“Because I don’t like it,” said Churchill, “and it’s a horrible noise.”
The boy strolled on, and then turned to call out: “Well, you can shut your ears, can’t you?” And he resumed whistling at full blast.
“Mr. Churchill was completely taken aback,” Thompson wrote, “and, for a moment, looked furious. Then, as we crossed the road into the Foreign Office yard, he began to smile. Quietly he repeated to himself the words, ‘You can shut your ears, can’t you?’ and followed them with one of his famous chuckles.”
Indeed, it is heartening to know I’m not alone in my aversion to whistling—especially when someone like Winston Churchill shared the sentiment. That’s good enough company for me!
Repetitive noises of any kind (excluding music I enjoy) are torture, wet or not, and can send me into a rage, so I’ve invested in industrial earplugs. I do think the word yummy is the single grossest word to have ever been invented, and much of that is contextual (learned perhaps?) - it’s the way it’s pronounced, the usual context and the type of person who might use that word that contribute to the already annoying letter combination. This is so highly fascinating
Uggh, the moist sounds! It is very hard to have compassion at a silent retreat with all that breathing! Or mindful eating? Forget it. I am curious what you mean about “misophonia is learned?”. I only realized it was a thing when my son developed it at 11. I’m also pretty sure my father had it. I thought it was an inherited neurological condition.
there's probably genetic susceptibility to it, but it generally involves some sort of specific trigger and learned association with it, which is why it presents differently in many people. this article gets into the etiology more, but it's still not totally clear! https://asteriskmag.com/issues/09/the-unbearable-loudness-of-chewing
I find it interesting that my misophonia of slurping or other eating sounds is confined to humans. My dogs or any dogs that I hear making eating noises I have no problem with and even enjoy.
Yep, this is a pretty consistent pattern
Vocal fry. It singes my brain like no other sound. Slo-mo nails on a chalkboard. “”Ya…h…h…h. I kno…o…o…w.” Please stop.
Yes! Vocal fry. I can never understand why people (girls and women) speak like this. Just PLEASE stop! Now!! Chewing, slurping, clipping nails, smacking, etc. drive me absolutely wild.
Males actually speak more often r using vocal fry this is a fact but it is more unacceptable to you when women do it.
The sound of my dog licking his nether region just drives me... ugh slurpy grossness.
The Misophonia trigger I have is repetitive sounds. Pen tapping, the same drumming pattern, the clanking sound from putting away dishes, incessant barking, playing scales on an instrument… all good examples.
Mouth noises (swallowing, which always sounds like gulping to me, chewing, slurping, lip smacking, teeth sucking, heavy breathing, et al). Whether people, dogs, or any other living creature is doing these gross things, it turns my stomach, and I am always shocked that everyone else is seems to not notice. For decades, I wondered what was wrong with me until I first read about this some time ago and felt somewhat relieved.
Those biological warning sounds, indicative, anthropologically speaking, of contagion, are to me, merely annoying. What makes me dream of getting a flamethrower and nuking the noise is the sound of generators or machinery running. Leafblowers. Washing machines. Refrigerators. I can't be in stores whose beverage sections roar. And "calming white noise" puts me into panic mode. It made sense when I asked myself why loud noises like a truck backfiring or fireworks didn't upset me. It seems that continual noise without a break makes it impossible to hear anything else in the environment like someone sneaking up on you or a pleasant sound like birdsong or a breeze rustling leaves.
I am glad I am not too adverse to moist sounds. My trigger is vacuum cleaners. It sounds forlorn. I guess that is because I only heard it when I had to stay home from school sick.
So interesting! Say more about forlorn?
Curious. As a kid I used to love the sound of my mum vacuuming downstairs after I was put to bed at night. I found an audio recording on YouTube of 'vacuuming in the next room' that is very similar, it is bliss to me!
I really like this take. I have an odd form of (what I refer to as) misophonia. Since being super young, I have had an aversion to *any* sound my granda makes (barring speaking normally). His humming, tapping, “silly” voices and especially his whistling sent me into an unwatchable rage. As a young child, back when I didn’t understand how to manage I would hit things around me, or even myself. It still happens now and has extended to other triggers like road rage and people dragging there feet or yawning loud. Glad to say that as it’s sad my granda elicits this reaction, I’ll be trialling EMDR therapy in a few weeks!
I didn't realise this was a recognised condition until a couple of years ago. My misophonia reaction is to the gurgling sound of boiling water, in a pan or a kettle as it reaches boiling point. The longer I hear it the more irritable and the angry I become. I can just about tolerate the kettle as it will shut off few seconds into boiling but a pan of spuds on the boil drives me mad to the point I'm compelled to shut it off or leave the room! People who eat and breathe noisily irritate me as well, but don't induce anything like the reaction boiling water does, which feels irrational.
I don't get 'moist' thing at all, it seems as ridiculous as people who get bent out of shape about pineapple on pizza!
As a jug player, I have been on the receiving end of misophonia on more than one occasion. For an example of what a jug sounds like, this tune begins with and features a splendid example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9X4JwNvjLWQ
So here's my epiphany regarding misophonia: create a musical ensemble comprised entirely of sounds that trigger people subject to it.
Ever since forever, I cringed when folks sniffed. My entire 64 years I have swithced seats, glanced in agony at the perpetrator, and sighed heavily at the sheer bad manners. Once I threw a box of kleenex in the law library at the serial sniffer. Blow your effing nose! IT IS NOT US, IT IS THEM.
Haha, I sympathize but in fact I think it’s us
Sniffing! My mother-in-law sniffed constantly and I wanted to throttle her. Just please use a darned kleenex.
My father struck me in the sternum when I was 7, as I bit onto a potato chip, without warning. The whack was the first warning and I still had that first chip in my mouth. "Chew with your mouth closed" he said. I remember thinking that was a bit of an unnecessary response after only having just put the chip into my mouth and more than the actual strike, my feelings were quite hurt. Fast forward about two decades and I lose my eyesight (not from the chip punch) and what I didn't know was misophonia at the time goes turbo. Alongside the turbo misophonia, I also find I now have synesthesia. My brain interprets sounds as both lights and textures. It's like the feeling of running your hand across a coarse surface accented by jagged points. the light reminds me of one of those music visualizers with bouncing colors and forms moving through my brain. It's been over 20 years now since the sight loss, 40 years since the "warning" and the misophonia/synesthesia combo seems to be worse when I'm fatigued or stressed. I even listen to music when I'm eating a meal by myself so I don't have to hear me chewing.
CHEW WITH YOUR MOUTH CLOSED.
While I detest the sound of breathing—especially *mouth* breathing—my worst triggers are humming and whistling, which send me into a RAGE. Before I ever heard the word “misophonia,” I tried explaining how whistling made me feel, and all I could come up with was that it made me feel violent. Perhaps that’s because my most common “fight-flight-freeze-fawn” stress response is “fight.” Or, perhaps it’s that humming and whistling are volitional acts, and I resent it when people willfully produce *noise pollution* and impose/inflict it on others because they want to self-soothe. I even feel that barely-audible “atonal whistling” is unacceptable because people just don’t need to make those sounds at all! Anyway, thank you for this article. I look forward to reading more as you continue looking into misophonia. I read somewhere that researchers have found people who suffer from misophonia have more connections and activity in and between certain areas of their brains. That makes sense to me because nobody in my family has any aversion to humming or whistling.
You may be heartened to know that none other than Winston Churchill had a famous whistle aversion:
Churchill’s lifelong aversion to whistling is amusingly recounted by his bodyguard Walter Thompson in his 1953 book, Sixty Minutes with Winston Churchill. Approached near Downing Street by a young boy of about fifteen, hands in pockets and whistling loudly, Churchill called to him in a sharp, stern voice: “Stop that whistling!”
Looking up at the Prime Minister with utter unconcern, the youngster answered, “Why should I?”
“Because I don’t like it,” said Churchill, “and it’s a horrible noise.”
The boy strolled on, and then turned to call out: “Well, you can shut your ears, can’t you?” And he resumed whistling at full blast.
“Mr. Churchill was completely taken aback,” Thompson wrote, “and, for a moment, looked furious. Then, as we crossed the road into the Foreign Office yard, he began to smile. Quietly he repeated to himself the words, ‘You can shut your ears, can’t you?’ and followed them with one of his famous chuckles.”
Indeed, it is heartening to know I’m not alone in my aversion to whistling—especially when someone like Winston Churchill shared the sentiment. That’s good enough company for me!
Can CBT help misophonia?
hasn’t been super well studied, but probably a little, not a lot: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/da.23127
That looks promising. I hate seeing my daughter suffer with this
Repetitive noises of any kind (excluding music I enjoy) are torture, wet or not, and can send me into a rage, so I’ve invested in industrial earplugs. I do think the word yummy is the single grossest word to have ever been invented, and much of that is contextual (learned perhaps?) - it’s the way it’s pronounced, the usual context and the type of person who might use that word that contribute to the already annoying letter combination. This is so highly fascinating