Most of us find hearing other people chomping and slurping rude and annoying, but to some, the sound of other people eating, coughing or even breathing can be enraging.
Here's the strange case of misophonia (lit. "hatred of sound"):
For people with a condition that some scientists call misophonia, mealtime can be torture. The sounds of other people eating — chewing, chomping, slurping, gurgling — can send them into an instantaneous, blood-boiling rage.
Or as Adah Siganoff put it, “rage, panic, fear, terror and anger, all mixed together.”
“The reaction is irrational,” said Ms. Siganoff, 52, of Alpine, Calif. “It is typical fight or flight” — so pronounced that she no longer eats with her husband.
Many people can be driven to distraction by certain small sounds that do not seem to bother others — gum chewing, footsteps, humming. But sufferers of misophonia, a newly recognized condition that remains little studied and poorly understood, take the problem to a higher level.
Joyce Cohen wrote this interesting article on The New York Times (just don't read it aloud, mmkay?): Link
There's no pattern to it either, some people try to say that it only happens when you're tired or concentrating, or that it follows some other trigger but it doesn't.
It's only recently that I discovered it's not so uncommon.
But it still comes back to me from time to time. Just today the sound of one of my current room mates making dinner almost made me put my fist through the wall.
I am glad I have a name for it now, though.
Alex, you have no idea how grateful I am for your having posted this here. I believed there was something wrong with me. I've felt so out of control and often, not able to do the things everybody else does because I knew I would encounter those pain-inducing sounds.
Thank you thank you thank you!
Thanks Alex for posting this story.