I have always had this as long as I can remember from a small child and it was mostly solely related to only how my mum eats, which I find to be quite unbearable. I would just find meal times so awful and want to run away.
As an interesting point to note, my non-misophonia friends and family also find my mums eating habits to be unpalatable and unpleasant so I am not entirely losing my mind on this one. I was diagnosed with OCD and anxiety as a teenager and have had CBT and therapy and am doing quite well otherwise in all other areas of my life.
I have kids of my own and brought them up to have what I think are good table manners and I have never found them to be triggering and give me the misophonia ‘ick’. You sit down to eat, don’t talk with your mouth full, don’t shovel food in your mouth, chew with mouth closed. Under these circumstances my misophonia is not an issue, I can eat out in restaurants and attend family meals (as long as I am not sitting directly next to or opposite my mum).
I have moved in with my partner of 5 years and his children live with him 50/50. I am really struggling with his DC’s poor table manners. They have never been taught not to speak with a mouth of food. They shovel huge mouthfuls in, then talk with it in there, last night at a special family meal, one of them was constantly yelling across the table spraying me with their chewed up food. They chew with their mouth open, make a lot of mess and lip smacking and slurp everything. I mean every single thing they eat or drink is slurped and smacked and spat. They are 9 and 11 so I think they could eat less like a toddler and graduate to eating more like a growing young adult.
I have tried to talk to him about it so many times but he thinks it’s fine, their manners are not that bad and I am the ‘weird one’ with a weird unreasonable issue and I am ‘over thinking it’ or ‘looking for it’ but it is making me not want to eat with them at all and I absolutely dread every single meal time with them and try to find a way to leave the table. I don’t say anything during the meal but he says I am visibly shuddering. He is upset that I might give the kids a ‘complex’ and wants me to just ignore it but I am asking for him to just teach them some basic manners
Today I felt like I had no choice but to wear loop earplugs at the dining table to try to minimise some of the noises. He thinks this is rude of me but my mental health is really suffering and I don’t know what to do.
Is there any other treatment I could try help with this? I feel very stuck and alone