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! 🫣

My nerve ends just go into overdrive and the noise seems amplified, it's not something we can hellp. I was so delighted to read there was an actual condition. I thought it was only me.

Crunching apples /crisps
Eating with mouth open
Slurping tea/coffee
Sucking porridge off spoon
Slippers slapping on floor
Exaggerated yawns / sneezes
Closing kitchen cupboard doors
Cutlery hitting teeth

Also chewing gum

Another misophonia sufferer here!
Crisps infuriate me, as does any time of slurping sound. My mum loves oranges, and quite often has one for her supper. The way she slurps on it just gives me the pure rage. I have to sit in the furthest seat away from her, and plug my finger in the nearest ear. Or I have to leave the room. She also does this annoying thing of sucking the last bit of drink from a cup. She'll drink most of it completely normally, but then kind of suck/hiss the last bit out.

My sister also gives me the rage with drinking as well. She'll pour some drink into her mouth, but then just hold it in her cheeks like a hamster and then swallow. JUST DRINK NORMALLY.

I'm also driven mad by the people who sound wet all the time, like there's always a spoonful of liquid sloshing around in their mouths. JUST SWALLOW IT. And also those people who swallow compulsively mid-sentence. They stop talking in an odd place, take a huge, painful-looking swallow, then continue on. BOAK.

Crisps are great. I love eating crisps.

The problem is when you eat them over a keyboard bits of crisps go into the keyboard. If you tip it upside down bits of crisps and hair fall out. Not nice.

I actually banged my keyboard on its side once to see what fell out. It was amazing. In an apocolypse I reckon I could survive for days on that.

Haha we really do sound like we've got a screw loose! It just makes no sense at all to someone who hasn't got it.

What about the people who pick at their teeth at the table? I have a colleague who gets out an interdent stick and goes at it in front of people at a table. Also one who covers her mouth while she grapples with some immovable food.
🤢🤢🤢
Honestly, for pity's sake; go away to a room alone and pick at your teeth in private. It seems as private an act to me as going to the loo.

Snacking all day isn’t good for you, we’ve become a nation of snackers. It used to be three meals a day, but now people can’t seem to go more than a couple of hours without eating. Unless it’s for a medical
condition then people would benefit from cutting this from their diets.

Ask her what she has for breakfast and then suggest a high protein alternative to keep her full for longer 😁

OMG. I have misophonia and yawning is the worst of all the infuriating things! I feel murderous just seeing someone yawn. Hearing it is a billion times worse. In your place I would have simply walked out and lost my job, otherwise I would be up on a murder charge.

Apple lady is a larger lady, she eats an awful lot. Cakes and massive sandwiches most days. I do worry about her health she is a similar age but gets all out of breath coming up the stairs and bangs into my chair when she tries to get out of the door. She is nice I don’t hate her she doesn’t know it’s annoying to me. I even feel bad posting about her. Don’t feel bad about my mum she is revolting.

@zingally omg I do the ear plugging on nearest side too 😀

I had a family member who did the most ridiculous performative yawns ever. It was a bizarre hooting noise, as loud as shouting. It actually used to make me jump. They knew I hated it and used to smirk if I even gave them a look.
It was definitely a deliberate performance.

I don’t know if it’s just I have noticed it more but she’s now doing this yawning repeatedly all day every day. I’m pretty sure this is a new thing she has started to do and she never did it before. It is one thing me choosing to leave the room when she is eating (which I try to do) but this loud yawning is unexpected and now pretty constant. No one naturally yawns this much, and this loudly. I think she is expecting a response from me but I completely ignore it. I know I’m hyper sensitive to noise but I hate this yawn.

Another sufferer of Misophonia here 🙋 Those that don't have it will never fully understand how stressful it is. It makes me want to rage, scream, run, cry and claw my skin off all at the same time. The effort it takes not to shout at the noise maker is phenomenal!

I have only read some of the OPs but all of your posts so I assume no one has suggested you ask to be moved to a desk far enough away from your colleague to not hear her eating an apple. Do that. Then get some therapy for the trauma your mother caused you and until you’ve healed from that try really hard not to transfer those feelings onto people who remind you of your mother.

It is difficult to explain to a non misophonia sufferer, but it gets a bit like Pavlovs dogs... even the anticipation of the act can bring on the rage. So seeing her take out an apple can start that cortisol racing... after enough times you don't even need to hear the crunch.

Another one who gets the rage at apples and crisps.

I was on a train journey last week and some young woman proceeded to eat a grab bag of Knick knacks, one knobbly stick at a time by putting it in her mouth, snapping off half and then chomping that and the remainder very loudly. She’d then take a noisy slurp of Coke approximately every 15 crisps 🤬 there must have been about a 100 of those fucking crisps in that bag 😭

I have to say I’m lucky with my colleagues, we are pretty respectful of each other and have the kind of relationship where you can jokingly tell them to STFU!

I know but if she’s far enough to not hear she would have to be constantly watching for her to see an apple. The occasional accidental sighting would have to be managed much the same as when one suddenly appears in any media or public space.