Misophonia, literally “hatred of sound,” is a form of decreased sound tolerance. It is a neurological disorder characterized by negative experiences resulting only from specific sounds, whether loud or soft, and is often used interchangeably with the term Selective Sound Sensitivity.
– Wikipedia c. Sep 2012
Oh my god, I think I (and possibly the kids) suffer from this.
People who have misophonia are most commonly annoyed, or even enraged, by such ordinary sounds as other people eating, breathing, sniffing, or coughing; certain consonants; or repetitive sounds.
Which explains why sometimes mealtimes in my house get us all a little testy. “Will you PLEASE stop biting your spoon before I have to ground you to plastic cutlery for the rest of your life.” (Me) “When you pass something, can you pick it up instead of sliding it on the wood. You know that sound hurts my ears.” (Ethan) “Dad, stop saying ‘Okay’ all the time.” (Hannah).
This kind of makes me happy. Without misophonia, we look like a bunch of cranky misanthropes looking for an excuse to snap at eachother. With it, we might instead be a bunch of people dealing with cross-wired brains and managing to still eat together, respect each other’s quirks and be mostly polite to each-other.
Deborah
/ 2012-09-17I think I’m a cranky misanthrope with misophonia. The teeth on metal thing bothers me, but what really pushes me to the edge is someone who is a noisy eater.
I possibly should have given this more thought before getting married.
Liz
/ 2012-09-21I totally remember when you guys had me live with you for a while despite the all types of crazy that I brought with you the only condition you all set was “you will have to stop letting your teeth touch the cutlery while you’re eating”. Nobody asked if I was bringing drugs or having boys over or any of that. Just the cutlery thing.
Personally, I never care about noise unless I am sleeping and then I am completely intolerant which doesn’t work out well because Gary is asthmatic and I’m always “Do you HAVE to use that inhaler?!!!???” and he’s always “Um, yes.” (well, he would be if he could breathe enough to talk). And then when I complain about this, people treat me like I’m the bad guy.
Megan
/ 2012-09-24Oh yeah, do all the drugs you want.
Unless you clink your needle against your spoon. Then I will punch you remorselessly.