Metal sounds--especially scraping, but to a lesser extent clanking--give me a fight or flight response. Fortunately, it's not too strong. I can usually just step away and settle down pretty easily.
But I spent probably two decades not really having a name for the feeling. It was really comforting to discover that there was actual research into the topic, even if so far there hasn't really been any progress on fixing it. The biggest help has been that my partner bought wooden utensils for us to use at home. Sometimes the simplest solution is the best.
This article is just the right length, imho: I appreciated the deep dive into a condition no one around me understands, as well as your willingness to tolerate the current ambiguity and unknowns about misophonia. Extremely helpful.
Interesting that eating together should be so central. One of the few things that really gets to me is having to watch somebody eat with their mouth open.
Very interesting essay. My first thought is that misophonia might not be best viewed as a reaction to sound per se but as a symptom of aversion, like a kind of allergy or a psychic autoimmune disorder. If so, then you might get more insight out of a general theory of aversion than by studying how the brain generates sound.
The only sound I can relate to inspiring rage is the drone/whine of gas powered leaf blowers — even at considerable distance and through walls. And only the gas powered version — electric ones are only annoying at very close proximity and then only because they are loud rather than due the sound frequency. I can’t recall reacting badly to the sound of any other power tools. But gas powered leaf blowers are definitely a trigger for me. I am hopeful that our municipality may ban them in a few years.
I do get irritated listening to my wife chewing her breakfast in bed beside me every morning, but fortunately only mildly so. I am sorry that this has been life-alteringly bad for you and I hope you are able to find a solution that will give you some relief.
😂😂🤣😂😆 …..and I thought it was because of my ♍️ Virgo Rising 😆😆 Regardless, I just “suck it up, Buttercup” when I hear my beloved chew. My own chewing sounds have never disturbed me in the least.
Jake, I'm interested that the article doesn't pick up on the links to autism. Since my autism diagnosis, I've become much more forgiving of my own (and my autistic son's) misophonia and now just accomodate it whenever I can. At work I use noise cancelling headphones so I don't have to feel bad about the urge to leap across the desk and strangle my co-worker every time she sips her tea. At home, I try to just observe and accept the reaction to the way my partner literally inhales every time he takes a mouthful of food. It's not that change isn't possible for autistic people, but it certainly does seem to be much more hardwired in some way.
This article was so long it became ridiculous. In the end this could have been cut at least in half to keep the very point of the article. I think many people like to flex their writing muscles and get lost.
Very interesting read.
Metal sounds--especially scraping, but to a lesser extent clanking--give me a fight or flight response. Fortunately, it's not too strong. I can usually just step away and settle down pretty easily.
But I spent probably two decades not really having a name for the feeling. It was really comforting to discover that there was actual research into the topic, even if so far there hasn't really been any progress on fixing it. The biggest help has been that my partner bought wooden utensils for us to use at home. Sometimes the simplest solution is the best.
This article is just the right length, imho: I appreciated the deep dive into a condition no one around me understands, as well as your willingness to tolerate the current ambiguity and unknowns about misophonia. Extremely helpful.
Interesting that eating together should be so central. One of the few things that really gets to me is having to watch somebody eat with their mouth open.
Very interesting essay. My first thought is that misophonia might not be best viewed as a reaction to sound per se but as a symptom of aversion, like a kind of allergy or a psychic autoimmune disorder. If so, then you might get more insight out of a general theory of aversion than by studying how the brain generates sound.
The only sound I can relate to inspiring rage is the drone/whine of gas powered leaf blowers — even at considerable distance and through walls. And only the gas powered version — electric ones are only annoying at very close proximity and then only because they are loud rather than due the sound frequency. I can’t recall reacting badly to the sound of any other power tools. But gas powered leaf blowers are definitely a trigger for me. I am hopeful that our municipality may ban them in a few years.
I do get irritated listening to my wife chewing her breakfast in bed beside me every morning, but fortunately only mildly so. I am sorry that this has been life-alteringly bad for you and I hope you are able to find a solution that will give you some relief.
😂😂🤣😂😆 …..and I thought it was because of my ♍️ Virgo Rising 😆😆 Regardless, I just “suck it up, Buttercup” when I hear my beloved chew. My own chewing sounds have never disturbed me in the least.
Jake, I'm interested that the article doesn't pick up on the links to autism. Since my autism diagnosis, I've become much more forgiving of my own (and my autistic son's) misophonia and now just accomodate it whenever I can. At work I use noise cancelling headphones so I don't have to feel bad about the urge to leap across the desk and strangle my co-worker every time she sips her tea. At home, I try to just observe and accept the reaction to the way my partner literally inhales every time he takes a mouthful of food. It's not that change isn't possible for autistic people, but it certainly does seem to be much more hardwired in some way.
This article was so long it became ridiculous. In the end this could have been cut at least in half to keep the very point of the article. I think many people like to flex their writing muscles and get lost.