Living with misophonia. Anyone who has misophonia want to chat? My son is a gobbler and I want to do terrible things!!!

[IncompleteSenten]

My son is in the room with me and he's eating.

Gobble gobble chomp chomp grunt ahhhh grunt chomp gobble gobble sigh.

How loaded is your fucking fork if you're grunting like you're deadlifting a horse?

I feel a murderous rage and at the same time i want to cry.

I hate eating with people and avoid it as much as possible because not only do I fantasise about plucking people's eyes out with my fork and beating them to death with it but I'm so paranoid about my own eating noises that I can't force food down and need to take tiny bites and drink water to force each bite down.

My sister is blind and came to stay. We had to eat together so i sat at the other side of the room and I had to have her play an audio book while I had a towel that I shoved in front of my mouth while I chewed in an attempt to muffle any noise I might make.

I know it's a condition people joke about and don't take seriously but it's utterly miserable to have to cope with this.

I want to yell at my son which is unreasonable and unfair so I won't but the pent up rage feels like a physical pain in my chest.

I'd love to talk with fellow sufferers about this godawful thing.

Misery loves company, I suppose.

Edit - my late dad had it too. I remember him yelling at me that my dinner was already dead so I didn't need to growl at it. That is when I started to become paranoid about making any noise when eating.

My brother is the worst I can't eat in the same room has him and will never be able too.
Thankfully my kids don't do this crazy eating.

I'm fine with people eating normally, no problem. I don't expect people to eat silently. But OMG DP. Smacks his lips, chews loudly , makes hmmm, hmmm sounds AND wants to have a conversation. My mum is worse, she does all the above AND eats with her mouth open. It's unbearable. I find excuses to leave the room.

DP used to sneeze really loudly too, until he pulled a muscle whilst sneezing. Well, that's what you get. He doesn't sneeze loudly anymore.

I have autism and have been told my misophonia is part of and related to my autism. I was diagnosed as an adult after my children were diagnosed as toddlers and their early years team strongly advised me to ask my GP for a referral.

Another vote for Loop Engage here: game changer product!

DD has it badly and mealtimes in her teenage years were a real battlefield. We resorted to background TV at all meals or beats headphones, which I hated but seemed like the least worst options. Then, prior to a recent holiday we bought her loops. They genuinely make a huge difference.

i don’t think I have misophonia but DH has recently taken to chewing paracetamol tablets at night for his sinus issues. So loud, exactly like the horse/apple analogy. There simply aren’t enough pillows on the bed to drown out the chomping, which seems to go on for ever.

I was just about to say this. I can't eat with my loops in. We have the radio on at mealtimes. I'm not as bad if I'm also eating as I'm distracted unless it's a crunchy meal. If the kids are snacking I'll remove myself from rhe room or ask them to move

I can't stand it! I have to tell my husband to eat nicely most nights. He has habit of touching his fork on his teeth I want to tip his head off.
I have a friends who are in a couple together who eat with mouths open smacking their lips. I actually find it quite painful for my self to sit and eat with them. It's pure torture.
I also can't stand and people who breathe loudly (my husband) once I am zoned into it that's it I can't focus on anything else.

My family thankfully eat quietly but my DS swirls saliva around his mouth when he is bored and I can hear that from across the room. My DB drinks in the most exaggerated fashion so I can hear the stages of swallow. I can't be in the same room as him and a beverage.

Food isn't my biggest trigger, extractor fans are never used, I'd rather cook with the door wide open in -5 than deal with that. And the 7 minutes it takes for my windscreen to clear on max have me on edge, especially if someone tries to speak to me at the same time. I can also hear a hum from most tvs on standby and fridges.

I work in a hospital and the machines beeping drives me mad, it doesn't seem to wind anyone else up. I have actually gone to a ward next door to plug in their obs machine because I heard it beeping through 2 sets of double doors.

I have an apple and crisp muncher at work, the crisps are bad enough but you can here them biting through the apple.

And I used to work with someone that would want to discuss things with you when you were at your desk who used to bring an apple with them and chomp their way through it whilst talking to you.

In the end I put ear buds in and listened to music.

But there are some foods that should be banned if you allow eating in an office at work desks.

Thanks that’s interesting as I didn’t realise they were related but makes sense, I struggle with misophonia so much. Sympathy to all sufferers. I tend to avoid people as much as I can.

Is misophonia always linked to autism etc?

Not always but it is one of the comorbid sensory processing disorders that people with autism can have.

I should correct myself. I believe it's not officially accepted by all as spd, it's more spd related/adjacent. It's me that views it as spd

My DH has taken to eating a couple of bags of crisps when he gets in from work. I could ram them bag and all down his fucking throat.

It is totally miserable and even worse when you know you’re being irrational and can’t say anything.

Have you tried living with someone with misphonia?

My teenage autistic daughter has it.

I can't breath without her being triggered. It's exhausting for both of us.

That's the worst bit yes. Having to pretend it's OK or find an excuse to leave the room because you really can't stand up, punch them and yell I want you to die die DIE

You've got to hold it inside because you know it's entirely your issue.

It's very stressful which is why I do my best to avoid situations where eating is involved. Can't always avoid it but I'm hoping those earplugs will save me.

For me, tapping, sneezing and throat clearing are other triggers.

Plus this weird thing my husband does where he pfffts through his lips like he's shooting out a tiny tiny seed.

That'll be a hard one to explain at my trial. 😂

My sister does. Her daughter has it.
They have adapted their lives so much to try to reduce her distress.
As a young child she would be sobbing, really sobbing, because the noises were so awful for her to cope with.
It was very distressing to watch and of course we all did everything we could to help.
She's 26 now and has got strategies to help her cope .

We've got strategies too.
I'm not blaming my daughter, she doesn't do it on purpose. I'm just pointing out that it is difficult for everyone because it is.

We never eat in the same room for that reason, and don't push it. But when the sound of breathing is an issue it is extremely difficult.

OP it sounds like your life is severely impacted because of misophonia. As you cannot completely eliminate or avoid your triggers have you considered CBT? The idea behind it is to achieve a point in which your response to the triggers is lower or neutral.

I know the pffft. My DH does it on the out breath of a snore sometimes 🤯

Argh I sympathise. Eating noises I'm actually Ok with, unless they're very loud.
My trigger is whispering, or raspy breathing. Totally identify with the physical and psychological reaction others are describing.
It's hard to live with, though thankfully whispering isn't something that you hear that often. If eating was my trigger it would be a lot worse as that's much harder to avoid.

Though the other week I had to move from my desk at work to one of the individual pods for quiet working, as the colleague next to me was whispering to himself as he was proof reading and typing. Utter hell.

Yes - I have a very sensitive nose - the biggest issue is if meat cooking smells get in the bedroom in the evening I cannot sleep. It drives me insane. As a result I am constantly shutting doors/upping the extractor when people are cooking. I wish I could just ignore it 😞

I hear you OP.

I live alone but when I stay with family or when they stay with me, the noise they make when they eat disgusts me on a visceral level. They refuse to entertain the idea that misophonia is a thing - it's simply me being intolerant because I live alone. Objectively my niece IS a disgusting eater - she refuses to eat with her mouth closed. My nephew's use of a knife and fork is like a toddler's.

My business partner has the same effect - his eating noises truly disgust me. Every day he has sandwiches containing salad, and the crunch and the chomp makes me murderous. As for the banana...

Any misophonists out there also hypersensitive to smells? Yes! Any smell I can't get to the bottom of really upsets me

My dad used to make this noise that no one else seemed to be able to hear. It as like he was swilling spit around in his mouth before he swallowed it.

ANY noises involving spit are upsetting. Sometimes you hear people on the radio and their mic is turned up too much or something. When they open their mouths to speak there's a little "click" noise of spit in their mouth. I can't explain it but it makes me nauseous.

American accents too. That loud nasal tone. Can’t stand it. Americans are quite loud too so you can’t tune it out. Hellish on holiday. I don’t like staying in hotels now. If I have to and see lots of Americans on the reviews then I am put off!!! Generally they are lovely people but my God why are they so loud?! And that Kim K nasal thing makes me 🤯

Blame your Reticular Activating System! The RAS is, simply put, the filter between your conscious and subconscious minds - it brings your attention to stuff you need to know and blocks out stuff you can safely ignore. It's why people can sleep next to railway lines yet hear there own name across a crowded room. Once you 'assign' an emotion - annoyance, disgust or anger - to the sound of other people eating the RAS will assume you want to be alerted to that sound. Like any learned behaviour it can be reversed.