Misophonia....weirdddd

Anyone ever hear of this disorder?? After watching some documentaries on Misophonia, my mom and I have come to the conclusion I have a mild form of it.

Wikipedia's Definition: 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.

I have a very low tolerance for chewing, whistling, sniffling, licking of the fingers, heavy breathing, and bad singing.

For years my mom has always said to me, "why are you so rude? Everything I do annoys you!"...and it use to make me sad, because she was right. All the things I listed literally gave me terrible anxiety, no matter if she or someone else does it. Whistling will bring me to tears if I hear it too long, when she sung songs in the car or kitchen, I have to turn my head and roll my eyes at least three times and my jaw tenses up. When people chew loudly, I often have to go get food to chew myself to not hear them, or sometimes if its really loud I have to leave the room. ...sniffling will make me snap and I will tell someone Go blow your nose!! I get very irritable, I literally breathe differently and sometimes I will look like I'm sitting with my head on my hands but my finger is really in my ear to help me deal with it.

I'm so happy I found out about this because those who have misophonia can NOT describe why this irritates us so bad. I wish I could! I have no idea why it really aggitates me to where I have to calm myself down or leave the room. There is no cure as of yet for it either.

I am more vocal about the subject, when people do stuff that annoys me I often speak up and ask them to stop or make them aware of it. On the documentaries I've been watching some people don't say anything and let it build up and completely snap! Start screaming and throwing tantrums like little children...which I find totally ridiculous, but now that I know I have this, I guess I can't judge lol....

Have you guys ever heard of this??? Before I watched this and heard about it I had no idea it was a neurological disorder or even had a name, I literally just thought....well...thought I was bitchy and I should control what irritates me, but I never could help it!....

Kelly Ripa has this. My mom first heard of this when she addressed it on her show.

Do you know anyone with this?

Interesting... I've never heard of this before. I get irritated easily with unnecessary sounds as well, especially when I'm reading. But I doubt that's misophonia.
Misophonia.. I like saying it lol. Thanks for teaching me something new. Hopefully, a cure or prevention could be discovered in the near future.

Lol I just figured out how to pronounce it, it took me a while!

Its easy to be annoyed by little sounds, but if it doesn't make you cry, throw you into major anxiety, make your heart rate go up, or make you want to leave the room I doubt you have it LOL..

You are welcome! Thats why I wanted to share actually because I had no idea about this and was like well this is new! and I have it!

I think most people have it even if just on low levels. I do have it. I become TOO upset when someone whispers, whistles, crackles their fingers, snorts or even mumbles and talks in low voices. It drives me nuts! I had a dream once of a cat scratching a wall with its claws then falling to the ground and breaking, ewww, I had a shock the next morning, couldn't speak or close my eyes till dad took me to the hospital. Afterwards, I began to have some kinds of phobias, especially fear of cat and getting fat. That's why I always starve myself. I cannot deny that it's controling me, and really it makes you suffer but I am striving to get rid of it. I don't know what caused me these disroders but most docotrs said that it's because of a childhood accident. I do agree.

Chelsey, don't worry, what you have is just really curable and simple. You must thank God it's nothing too serious! :)

The phobias you have does not sound like this LOL! but that is really read Noura!

I am thankful its not serious...I just hope it doesn't worsen, because I refuse to be on some kind of anxiety pill my whole life. I already have a bottle for my occassion panic attacks...I'm not a pill popper, I dont like side effects and I feel like a cure would be some kind of a pill. So I have to practice self control and self soothing methods!

I know. I said that this caused me lots of phobias as I grew up.

My son has it too, Chelsey.

He didn't use to have it, but he developed it when he was in his early teens. It all started when we moved to a new home. Something was terrribly wrong there, although we never found out what it was exactly, but most people in our street got cancer, or other serious deseases. They said it was the trees. We had Maple trees in our street and we were told it was a mistake and they should not have been planted in the city, because they give off too much pollen. My son developed a very low tolerance for sounds, smells and light. All his senses became super- alert, it seemed. We moved from there and since then, it has become a little less with him. In the former home, he drove us completely mad by shutting the blinds every time we didn't look and going crazy with anger when someone used perfume in his presence. The radio has not been on since he got this condition, we only do that when he is away to uni, or on holidays with his friends. We threw away all things that contain perfume or have a strong smell. We asked the doctor what is wrong, but they don't really know, just that he is hyper sensitive. I have read about Multiple Chemical Sensitivity, it is not seen as a real desease in Holland, but his symptoms match this condition very much...and the trigger could have been the pollen from the Maple trees.

I always feel like choking people who can't stop coughing.. like sheesh...go to pluto or so... dem.

I can't even stand myself coughing it drives me INSANE.
I can't stand humans actually to be honest and nothing that has to do with them...

I am a hermit. I will live far from humanity one day.

waw but please, the chirping birds drive me nuts too I wanna shoot them with a gun.. waw, and when dogs can't stop barking.. omfg.. I wanna choke them.. oh god.. I hate everything..

what is my disease... lmao

Wow....I grew up with a Maple Tree in my front yard. However, I have no sensitivity to light or smell.... Did the doctor say it could have been triggered from the pollen, or was that something you discovered on your own?

EDIT: actually....now that I think about it, I hate light in my house. I'm always closing blinds and closing doors, I love dark paint and my mom always tells me to open the house....is that a part of this I wonder? Or something different?

Yaki your diease is called "bad attitude" Lmao didn't we discover that together which is why you bought that one tshirt that says "my shitty attitude is none of your business? LMAO

I am 100% sure..that my disease comes rather from the things around me, than those inside of me.

I have spring inside, I am a star. humans need to leave me alone.. all breathing things need to leave alone.

Never heard that pollens have anythung to do with this.... And hahaaha chesy you cracked me up..

I am now sick too :( I ate something that is yuck and I have been tgrowing up eewww ..... Enough talking bout sicknessesssssss

About the pollen: everything used to be covered in this brown dust in the houses of my former street. You dusted it and one day later it was all covered again. We, the owners, talked about it a lot and we heard from an official source that the Maple tree does not belong in a city. I have little doubt this is what caused my son to become overly sensitive..but when you read about MCS, you will see it is triggered by a number of things, mostly strong chemical substances.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multiple_chemical_sensitivity

Hmmm I read it and that does sound like it could attribute to why your son has that......I guess it wouldn't be as fitting for why I have Misophonia though because that is just with sound and I don't have any problem around the chemicals they listed....very interesting to read and learn about!

"I have a very low tolerance for chewing, whistling, sniffling, licking of the fingers, heavy breathing, and bad singing."

WHO DOESN'T?
Reminds me of the song in Chicago, "Cell Block Tango"

"You know how people
Have these little habits
That get you down. Like Bernie.
Bernie liked to chew gum.
No, not chew. POP. So I came home this one day,
And I am really irritated, and I'm
Looking for a little bit of sympathy
And there's Bernie layin'
On the couch, drinkin' a beer
And chewin'. No, not chewin'.
Poppin'. So, I said to him,
I said, "You pop that
Gum one more time..."
And he did.
So I took the shotgun off the wall
And I fired two warning shots...
... into his head.

[ALL]
He had it coming
He had it coming
He only had himself to blame
If you'd have been there
If you'd have heard it
I betcha you would
Have done the same!"

Lmfao!! In love with this song Larry.....

I find a huge difference though with having no tolerance, to what it does to me. Crying, breathing heavy, makes me leave a room, makes me have anxiety. . It will piss me off to the point where i wanna throw stuff but i dont. Its controlled unlike these otner crazy asses who were attacking people and screaming haha. Now thats crazy to me, I vow to never do that! Lol

Please..screaming children in the supermarket..

omfg..like woman would you please take your beast to some discipline school in Russia please..

omfg.. I just hate everything.. omg when people have the tv so loud.. or the radio specially with latin music it gives me a headache... omg... why do i have to deal with people....WHY

I think my friend has it :P

In class, while doing a test, and someone makes a noise with his pen, she shouts at him,, same with breathing heavily.. same with bad singing voice!!

Yaki you need to morph into a dog that way people will love on you and pet you and kiss your face and youll be so happy and wag your little tail lmao

Abed thats definitely a sign of it. On the documentary this guy with misophonia liked himself in a room to demonstrate. This guy was clicking his pen. Slurping his coffee, breathing heavy, and typing...he was rocking himself and started crying and said I CANT DO THIS!

"Yaki you need to morph into a dog that way people will love on you and pet you and kiss your face and youll be so happy and wag your little tail lmao"

WAW YES.. AND I WANNA BE A ROUGH LOOKING ONE.. LIKE A BLACK PITBULL WITH BLUE EYES.. RAWR.

Doesn't that defeat the whole purpose?

PS: I too suffer from misaphonia. At least twice a day I can't find the blasted thing.

I seriously have to find the bottom of why I am so enraged all the time. I think my polar is Bi.

Ha, I know this word. My sister has it. Seriously.

Wikepedia has errors at times. Misophonia is not a true neurological disorder, your local neurologist may never have heard of it either. It is in fact a pseudo-disorder, or more correctly a psychosomatic disorder (with elements of OCD..though not a true OCD), a term invented by 2 Polish audiologists (Jastreboff PJ & Jastreboff MM, both are non-MD's) who treat "tinnitus", and hold Professorial positions in audiology/Otolaryngology (but are not neurologists with a MD or PhD Neuroscience) at Emory Univ - resume: (http://otolaryngology.emory.edu/about-us/faculty/pjastreboff.html)

It is not an uncommon disorder of selective sensitivity to certain conditioned responses that you learn to mentally reject....a form of selective hyperacusis (like the idiom "selective hearing"...an expression with which we use to tease our sibs/older/younger folks,who sometimes only want to listen to some and not other things). The negative responses to certain sounds become "conditioned" in your limbic cortex (portion of brain involved with emotions), which learns to exhibit "annoyance" with the sounds that are negative to your hearing perception. i.e our emotional (limbic cortex) brain reacting with anger/rage when you hear these sounds, as your brain has been negatively "conditioned" with the sounds that you find unpleasant....a little bit similar to one of the theories of "tinnitus (=ringing in the ears)"...though this is a much more complex condition. Misophonia is also found in high frequency in folks that suffers with tinnitus, giving some credence to the thought that they are somehow related.

This article (referenced by the Wikepidia article) explains it a little better:

http://www.psychosomaticmedicine.org/content/70/6/739.full

Try deconditioning therapy...may or may not work...depends on how good you are in training your mind (limbic cortex) to overcome a negatively conditioned response.

I had not heard about this condition either, so thanks for bringing it up. And certainly, it is mislabelled as "neurological" instead of "psychosomatic". (From my 5 mts of hurried research on this topic...sorry no time for more).
------------------------------------------

"I have spring inside, I am a star...." Yaki^

You are absolutely right Yaki. Haha
We love your poems. No one can match them!
(But, somehow you have a knack to get yourself in the middle of things that you still need to master.....). No need to be excessively self-critical, learn and move on.
So no worries if people criticize you...
at least some of us understand you. :)

Chels, you sound a lot like my sister. I love her, so don't be too offended, but being around her makes me soooo tense. It's like I'm walking on eggshells and I can't enjoy anything I'm doing, especially eating.
She HATES the sound of chewing and if you happen to touch your teeth to the fork while you're eating, she'll rip your head off.

I think a lot of people are like this. There are certain sounds that drive me up the wall, too, almost like a dog hearing a dog whistle.

I'm not sure it should be considered a disorder - if hatred were a disorder we'd all have clinical issues.
Plus, even the word denotes nothing but a simple hatred for sound.

For me it's someone biting their nales
God i feel like banging my head on the wall whenever i see someone biting them! it becomes personal

Lol well thankfully I'm a joy to be around still! Like I said Im glad I have a mild form of it and not like those people who are over the top rude and have raging fits...I can control my anxiety by tensing up, rolling my eyes or eating food to not hear others, and as I stated above I have no problem voicing it and telling someone to please stop before I go crazy. Lol
I found this very interesting.....if its true, that we basically train our brain to stop responding to our annoyances, I wonder when it started? Or why? Because I've been like that since I was a little kid.

I would not be surprised if you are also highly sensitive.

Have you ever heard of Elaine Aron? She has written several books about this subject. This is a link to her site: http://www.hsperson.com/

Never heard of her, or any of this!...I'm going to check it out! thanks for your insight all!

We should notice that there is a common thread running through this issue. All the normally petty annoyances which rise to the level of unbearable intrusions on our awareness reflect the impact that someone else has on us. Whether it's bodily noises, bad singing, 2 minute experts, or inappropriate humor, they all are actions over which we do not have control but believe we should.

It is a level of righteousness: the idea that, in the public arena, our desires for a zone of privacy have greater validity than someone else's right to be annoying. This issue brings to mind that suffering is a state of mind: "Pain is inevitable, suffering is optional." The fundamental solution is compassion.

As for therapy, Cognitive Psychology is the field in which to find relief. CP is more commonly associated with desensitation to the triggers of various phobias, but it is effective in any situation in which one's assumptions about reality should be challenged.

I often let the things that trigger my annoyance and anxiety happen which is why I leave the room, I guess to still give them their right. As I would do for anyone who was bothered by something I was doing, would be to stop. Thankfully the people in my life respect my "pet peeves", "annoyance" , "phobia" , whatever people want to call it and they stop. ....as they become more aware of it, I will be practicing self control, methods in which I can try to tolerate it, and pray hard about it. This may not be cancer, or a deathly disease, but it does affect my life in some aspect, which is something God can heal. . . I refuse to be one of those people who get therapy, who take pills, who use this as an excuse as to why they are how they are.......very interesting it has a name, but I think with practice and slowly building tolerance for it some day this can be overcome.

Omg those goats that won't shut up

I wanna hit them with a shoe

Joke, baby goats are mad cute... meeeeh meeeeh <3

CBT (Cognitive behavioral therapy) and Tinnitus retraining therapy are the two methods people use to treat these conditions.

CBT is a form of realigning maladaptive thinking - "mind over matter" theory of Deepak Chopra.

TRT is essentially the same, and consists largely of counseling as to how to ignore irritant stimuli to our senses.

Just some fancy modern words for learning to control your psyche, with various practical psychological techniques.

In the ancient days Hindu saints learnt how to block pain and other worldly distractions via meditation, which in my opinion would be the way I would go... a much more powerful technique than counseling.

I appreciate what Larry wrote and agree.

Asking someone to stop engaging in pretty basic behaviors on account of your intolerance to sound is probably not a good way to go about things. My sister rolls her eyes and sighs heavily when she can hear someone chewing, and it's not only embarrassing, but it's rude. Being her sister doesn't make it better. I can't eat food in the same room as her without feeling self conscious. It makes eating very unpleasant... and I love eating!

It's probably best for everyone if people who have a "hatred of sound" learn some coping strategies.

^ i think it goes both ways.....

My mom and I have been aware of one another. Im learning to eat the same time or turn the tv up a bit or just try my hardest to tune it out. And shes learning to keep her mouth closed lol.

I do believe that people are really stupid when it comes to this. As i stated before all these sounds do give me bad anxiety and literally take me from a good mood to a bad one, but the people who get up and scream in your face or throw shit in order to make themselves feel better is so over the top and ridiculous!! That is rude.....with practice from both sides I believe its something to over come!

Jane, I would bite someone who is chewing beside me, even though chewing is one of those sounds I 'might' stand. It's uncontrollable. I always had fights with people because they make such sounds. I guess it is rude but on the other hand, you just can't control it!

Damn, when someone whistles, I go nuts.

I find chewing loudly and obnoxiously rude!..lol its Mannerism ..i was taught to chew with my mouth closed.......so when i hear people smacking their lips or grunting and groaning its just gross...i find it can be a controlled thing. Its not that hard to shut your mouth while chewing and if it is, take smaller bites lol

Hahaha. My sister used to chew food, now she breathes it so I won't throw her out of the window. :P

Noura's boyfriends must learn liquid diets.