What is Misophonia?

Misophonia, also known to some as Selective Sound Sensitivity Syndrome, is a fairly rare condition. It was only recently recognized as a condition in 2001. There are some in the medical community that are still skeptical about whether misophonia should even be considered a real disorder, but to the sufferer, the effects of misophonia are real and often make you feel like an outsider in your own hidden world. The average age of onset for this neurological condition is 11–12 years old.

Although there are many studies being done right now about misophonia, it is still a condition shrouded by a cloak of misunderstanding.

The word misophonia translates literally to “hatred of sound.” The sufferer has automatic physical reactions to everyday sounds, which can make something as normal as a meal torturous for the sufferer. Certain stimuli, or triggers, create automatic physical and emotional responses such as feelings of panic, rage, and anxiety. These types of involuntary reactions brought on by average, everyday sights and sounds can make the most benign tasks unbearable. Even the lesser triggers can cause anxiety throughout the day because it always feels like we’re doing whatever we can to avoid these “bad” trigger situations.

Triggers

The most common triggers for misophonia sufferers are auditory and created by other humans:

eating noises, like scraping utensils on plate

smacking of lips

chewing with mouth open

crunching

drinking noises — slurping, saying “ah” after a drink, swallowing, the noise of setting a cup down

Teeth hitting silverware

The triggers aren’t only with eating or drinking, however. They include other types of bodily noise:

gum chewing

kissing sounds

teeth brushing

hiccups

coughing

sneezing

whistling

loud breathing

speaking sounds, such as the “s” or sibilance

sniffing

snoring

certain speaking voices

Misophonia is tricky because it means “hatred of sound,” but that is just the tip of the iceberg, the disorder can branch out with visual triggers that are that cause anticipatory anxiety:

jaw moving, chewing

hands touching face

leg movement

rubbing feet together

hair twirling

putting food into mouth

drumming fingers or pen

eyes blinking

So, misophonia sufferers can have just auditory triggers, or (like me) can have a combination of both auditory and visual. In some rare cases, sufferers may also have triggers of odor (certain scents), feel (touching certain fabrics), and vibrations (bass thumping, heavy footsteps, chair kicking) that can create the same sort of emotions, such as disgust, anger, and panic.

Reactions to Triggers

Certain stimulus can trigger neurological and physiological responses in the sufferers’ body that are meant to protect them from danger. Being triggered feels a lot like fight or flight mode, also known as an acute stress response. The same panic and fear overcomes you. Your body is ready to stop the trigger at all costs.

The stress that such an episode has on your body is real: cortisone and adrenaline pumping through your system. It can cause unpleasant physical tension in shoulders, jaw, neck, fists, and in some rare cases a tingling sensation. I sometimes get chills down my spine when faced with a trigger. There is also the violent ideation some sufferers get during an attack, fantasizing of using violence on someone because of a trigger.

Don’t worry — although we imagine punching you in the face, we have no intention of carrying it out.

I’ll never forget my first misophonia trigger. I was probably around 11 years old and taking a test during school. There was a girl next to me that was chewing gum. She wasn’t being necessarily loud with her chewing—in fact, it’s likely that no one else noticed it except for me. It was quiet in the classroom and all at once — like a shift happened in my brain — one moment I was normal and the next moment the gum-chewing was the only noise that I could hear. A river of rage tore through me. I glared at her and tried to discreetly plug my ears. I saw her happy as can be, jaw moving up and down and her lips open as she chewed — the source of the sound, and my first visual trigger. From there, my irritation and rage just increased. From that first onset of misophonia, the disorder seemed to spread from just chewing gum sounds to a multitude of other triggers.

According to The Misophonia Institute, triggers sometimes “key in” on one person. Unfortunately for me, my mother, one of my favorite people in the world, was that trigger person for me with almost everything she did: the way she chewed, her cough, her sneezes, the rhythmic way she rubbed her feet together, and repetitive way she would pick up and set down her cup as she drank her iced tea. There are times where I would get triggered just seeing her make her lunch.

Because of this, I wasn’t able to eat in the same room as my own mom for nearly 10 years after my onset of misophonia. Our relationship suffered, even though she has always been very understanding of the disorder. It’s not you, it’s me, I would constantly explain.