Eating apples in confined spaces

[Waking99]

I share a small office with a colleague who eats continually at their desk all day. It’s not smelly food so that’s not an issue, but it’s often crunchy and noisy foods like crisps and apples. I must have some form of misophonia I wasn’t aware of as the sound of someone eating an apple in a quiet room is unexpectedly unbearable and this is causing me a lot of stress! I also feel bad about having these feelings, am I unreasonable? I don’t think I can say anything to colleague I just need to find ways to deal with it? I assume this is a ‘me problem’?

I will leave the room when the food comes out usually, but on the occasion I can’t I feel so stressed. A small radio isn’t really enough to drown out the noise for me and I can’t wear ANC headphones all the time - for instance another colleague drops by to discuss a work issue, everyone is talking and office share colleague will open their bag and get out an apple to crunch and slurp over for the next 10 mins. I can’t leave the room mid convo so I am trapped there with the noise.

Is it really reasonable to eat apples or crisps in small spaces? I would never! 🫣

Could you buy her an apple corer and be super apologetic? I can't eat apples whole because of crowns so I use an apple corer and it definitely takes away the crunchiness!

I feel everyone's pain here though. I can't stand the noise of someone eating cereal. It sounds awful! I'm fine with most other eating noises too. I also have digestive issues so can't really eat full meals.. Well, I can but I can be ill for days afterwards. I snack a lot because of this as I never feel satisfied.

One of my biggest rage inducers is people who are eating where something is wrapped in a wrapper that that rustles whilst they eat...I literally have to talk to myself in my head to stop me from saying anything....but then they continue to rustle the wrapper seemingly forever once they have finished...that does tip me over the edge and I have been known to ask if they want me to put the wrapper in the bin for them 🫣. I hate it and wish it didn't bother me.

I have a colleague who eats sweets all day.
Rustle rustle rustle. Hand in and out of the bag.
Unwrapping wrappers.
Chew chew chew.

Repeat.

I hear you OP.

@SuperBored I think we must work together 🤣

I cant tell you the last time i took a lunch break. Also, i don’t eat “lunch” i just have snacks on and off all day. Ive never been a beeakfast or lunch person

I am a misphonia person… I have to leave the room with apples and cornflakes

ok, gordon gekko

Yes it is perfectly ok to eat an apple in a small office.

Weirdly I am much hungrier sitting at a desk in an office than I was teaching, stood up doing stuff all day. I’m new to it still but I think essentially there’s not a lot ‘to do’ physically in an office so eating gives you a ‘something to do’ (as in with your hands not saying Everyone on an office is sitting doing naff all). Also i suppose some offices don’t have break out spaces. I do find it strange though, think it’s a bit of a privilege office staff probably don’t realise they have.

It's reasonable to ask them to restrict eating to lunch plus two snacks, nobody needs to snack continuously (even diabetics don't need to eat more than every 2 hours)

The worst is the endless yoghurt pot scrape.

Tell them to eat the apple in a corridor or foyer.

Tell HR you have an airborne allergy to apples 😅

Dd eating.... anything. She kind if breathe-chomps and I can't bear it. Take a breath before you eat. Then close your mouth.
Dh eating his breakfast. But it's not just the sound, it's the way he holds his spoon too.
Dh heavy breathing.
Still haven't got over my dad eating cereal.... and I haven't lived at home for 25 years!

Why can't you just eat enough at mealtimes so that you don't need to graze?

I don't suffer from misophonia, but you would drive me round the bend if you ate crunchy foods all day next to me.

I have a similar deep revulsion of noises and quite often "have a call" in a meeting room on my own. Or headphones with music but not always conducive to work/ colleagues asking for help etc

I'm still teaching, so I kind of get it. You don't get much time to eat during the day and you're always properly hungry, so anything will do.
At weekends or half term though, when I'm working at home, I graze a lot. Mainly as a reward- work for an hour, give yourself a treat. Mark 5 books=treat.

DH eating cereal is one of my biggest triggers. He absolutely shovels it down because he can't stand it if it goes soggy. He always sort of bites the spoon. Spoon on teeth with added slurping. ARGH.

The pot noodle advert!!! 😡

This is really difficult. I have misophonia but it isn’t for these particular noises - it’s for squeaky noises and in particular polystyrene. If people were squeaking polystyrene all day in the office I wouldn’t be able to be there at all. Or biting wool/ knitted fabrics.

The thing is though, people have also got a right to eat in the office. It helps a lot of people to concentrate. And different foods would annoy different people, as this thread shows- one hates anything crunchy, one hates cereal, another sweets or anything wrapped.

So I don’t really know the answer except maybe no more open plan offices!

I have contemplated bashing DH over the head more than once for eating apples. He cronches HARD and loud for the first ten bites then nibbles like a loud mad squirrel for the next 5 mins. I leave the room now, it's been 20 years so not going to divorce him for that reason.

However I will say that 4 years blissfully working from home has made me hugely intolerant to people's general yapping, rustling and crunching in the work environment. Why on earth can't people just stop eating between main meal times?

This is true I think.

When I had a “performance” type job, a bit like teaching, I didn’t want to eat all the time and didn’t feel hungry - so I was a lot thinner.

Sitting at a desk trying to concentrate on work makes me STAAAARRRVING - it’s a really weird thing.

I've just seen it! An absolute horror show of an ad.

This thread has really made me laugh. Thank you fellow loonies - and Gordon Gecko 😂

I am sorry though so many people have this, it’s unfortunate

So many questions I am happy to educate on my new found problem. I can only explain it as a visceral deep shuddering ICK that makes me want to claw at myself and run away. All I want to do is escape the noise, I don’t want to hurt anyone violently 😂

YES my mother eats like that in restaurants to whoever asked. She also scrapes everything to an inch of its life (like taking the glaze off the bowls and every single atom of yoghurt)

To be fair my sister and all of our kids also find her eating deeply revolting so the misophonia has been installed in all of us unwillingly I suspect but I have it worst.

I also don’t like wool on teeth or nylon/polyester at all. I can just about handle touching flat cotton wool pads. A dentist once packed my mouth full of cotton wool and when I woke up from the anaesthetic I completely freaked out and threw up.

Apple lady doesn’t know she is bothering me, I do feel bad so I will just keep trying to manage it with these helpful suggestions. There is no reason for her to eat all day at her desk we have a break room. I do sometimes eat at my desk too, perhaps she feels sick at me and we are in a misophonia cycle.

Fuck. I actually would be unable to do any job with you within earshot. There is no way my brain could process any information.