I think this site is useful in that a sufferer can show it to their friends and family and then there is a greater understanding but I also feel that it could make sufferers feel worse about their condition as all of the stories are very negative and probably only show what it's like for a very small number of people who have a very bad level of the condition. I have read that misophonia is very rare and there is no cure (it may not have been on this site) but I have heard of lots of people who have it on varying levels and with most of them it got better or did not become a massive problem. I think this is definitely something that can be overcome as it wasn't there in the first place. I am already managing quite well with CBT and I've only been trying it for 2 days. I know it may take a long time but I also know that I will get over it. I'm also bothered by visual things as well as sound so I definitely don't think it's a problem with my hearing like some people believe. A phobia is a conditioned response which can be very strong and it is possible to overcome them.

it sure is a phobia a phobia is when you hate or are scared of it ,hun it is a phobia

lol lol lol Guy I like you , you shot that person down , but politly they don't know what theyre on about.

hi guy great to find you,isuffer real badand thought it was me me me,but i was wondering has anyone tried hypotist or the like and has it worked ,iam thinking of going that way but it is very expensive so could do with some advise

I have hated sniffing since probably around 10 or 11 years old. I am really happy that there are other people like this out there!!

omg thank you!! now i no im not alone

Hi Guy,

Thank you so much for the wonderful work you keep on doing for misophonia sufferers. This website is very professional en well thought about. You keep on adding new information to it. Your latest edition with the misophonia scale on it has been an eye opener for me as well as a support. Keep on doing the good work!
In Holland a student psychiatrist is very intersted in misophonia and says he treated 2 sufferers which resulted in a significant improvement of their symptons. I'm still waiting for his reply on my question what the treatment was. I also refered him to your website.
Nowhere on the internet is such a lot of information gathered about misophonia.
Again, thanks a lot for everything your doing!
Best wishes from Catharina Walta

After having to excuse myself again from a family dinner, for fear of yelling at someone. I turned to the magical interweb for support and lo, there is an actual condition for how I feel, and this great website. I feel so much more at ease now. Maybe my mother will stop laughing at me and telling me to grow up (I am 31).Thanks and keep up the good work....

I have just found this website and the actual name for the condition I have suffered through for almost 50 years. Hallelujah !! Jennifer, my younger sister suffers from it also. I have always thought that i "trained" her to be like me. I was 6 years old when I first noticed the snoring of my dad way down the hall in his room. Then came gum chewing/cracking.. Now I have a long list of things that get me so frustrated that I could just scream out and cry non-stop. My husband still laughs at me and I cannot wait to show him this website.

I, like the rest of you have noticed this all started around 10-12yrs old. I find this website has helped inform me of the symptoms and possibly coping methods. Which is important as I live in NZ and can't find any Clinical Psychologists in Christchurch who will help me cause they don't know about it.

I'm willing to try anything within reason. My problem is I hate typing sounds amongst other noises (at the moment someone in the office has a sore throat is constantly clearing it, makes me want to punch her)and I work in an office!(everyone in the office knows of my problem but they do not seem inclined to help or try to make it bearable for me).

My iPod has helped a little but it is very unprofessional and I can't always hear someone when the want to talk to me,even though I have it turned low. Ear plugs don't block the noise out enough for me.

Just before Christmas I decided I did not want to just cope anymore, really it can't be good to be stressed 8 hours a day, 5 days a week or feel like wanting to quite, I like my job and the people. Its very difficult though not to hate someone because of the noises they make. My BF thinks its a load of fun and teases me about it to, sigh.

I will keep pressing on though, even if I have to wait till I come back to the UK in a few years time.

I have been at leval 10 since 1960!I have pelted a dod with lemons, kidnaped several dogs and transported them 100 miles away,Threatned to kill gum snappers,prohibited children to have rattles, bells or noise makers of any sort,Fired an employee for cracking gum, consitered haveing my eardrums removed and consitered suicide for a long time!

This website has completely changed me. It's funny how knowing that one is clinically crazy, and not regular crazy, can change one's outlook. After hurting so many people, and pushing so many away, the feeling that there are people out there who understand is so acutely compellling.
Thank you. A thousand times, thank you. To everyone else out there who suffers as I do, just remember that we are united. I believe that one day, there will be peace for us. Until then, we will stick together.

Just found out that my crazy pet peeve is actually a medical condition today. My noises are chewing, breathing, and sucking/smacking. Whats weird is how specific it is to only humans. My brother used to run in my room every Saturday morning, sit behind me, and eat cereal while I was on the computer. I would always kick him out with anger. One day, he came in and I could here him smacking his cereal, I turned around to kick him out, turns out it was my dog with a mouthful of food, all the sudden there was no more rage. In fact, I find animal chewing noises kind of adorable. I'm an extremely rational and unemotional person, yet somehow, these noises somehow flip a switch in my brain.

Hi there,

I read an article in the health supplement of the Irish Times the other day and it was unreal how much of it rang true for me. I have always been unnaturally annoyed by noises in particular eating noises and for some reason in particular when I'm on public transport as I feel there is no escape and I really feel like screaming at the person. My triggers also include lots of the common ones I've read about here including sniffing, coughing, people clearing their throat, people eating cereal and scraping the bowl, eating loud or eating crunchy food and chewing gum,hearing the TV when I'm in the next room, any noise at all when I'm trying to sleep. These are just some of the ones I can think of right now.

Finally I have two questions which I would be interested to hear peoples opinions on:

I wear ear plugs a lot - mostly at night to block out ambient noise from the next room etc and wonder could I be doing myself more harm than good as I'm not allowing myself to adjust to hearing these ambient noises? I feel the alternative would be actually losing the plot with anger/frustration but am also worried that I'm actually increasing my sensitivity by constantly blocking out the noise.

Secondly (and this part is directed at female sufferers), do many/any women out there find their triggers/sensitivities increase when they are pre-menstrual?

Once my mind was rejecting the sound of someone chewing in the kitchen. I checked who was doing this noise and it was the cat. The rage stopped. Not more blame. This helped me to understand that the intolerance I was experiencing was not towards the sound. It was more a need to place a blame, due maybe to unsolved resentments. I find interesting that the triggering sounds are so similar among the people with this type of syndrome.
I was hoping to read at least a couple of stories in this website of people who are no longer reacting to noises. This is not the case.
What to do? I would like to be able to sustain a kind of distance towards the sensations and thoughts related to this intolerance. A belief that it is just a part of my mind who is doing this and me being aware of it. Since it is not me, then it makes sense that I cannot control the reaction. So, yes, strength and patience, in order to gain (receive?)serenity.

Thank you so much for this website.
It has significantly helped me understand this condition that I have been dealing with. I have only recently begun to notice that in the past 2 years, certain sounds like my father chewing at the dinner table just enrages me.

My mom would always claim that I had no patience and needed to be more courteous to others and stop 'glaring' at my Dad at dinner. Now I understand what I am going through when I experience these feelings.

I'm 20 now, and knowing/understanding misophonia will help me deal with its effects in the future.

I am also thankful for all of the resources available here and I hope to explain to my parents how their certain noises and behaviors affect me.

Thank you!

I am a 47 year old female who has suffered with this condition since I was a child. It has progressively gotten worse each year, since I developed it. My father and younger brother also suffered with this and I believe that it's genetic. How is it that today is the first time I have ever heard the term misophonia? I have been seeking a diagnosis from medical as well as mental health professionals for years; they've all just looked at me like as though I was nuts and not a one ever took my complaints seriously. Now that I actually know what I have, maybe I can finally find someone or something that will help me, before I completely lose my mind once and for all.

Earlier this week when I was reading the news online, I ran across the following headline from the New York Times: "When a Chomp or a Slurp Is a Trigger for Outrage." What a tremendous relief it was to see that there is a term for the condition I've dealt with for so long! Misophonia! It has also been a tremendous relief to know that I'm not alone in this struggle.

I have suffered from misophonia since I was a "tween" when my brother pointed out another brother's chewing sounds at the dinner table. Chewing sounds are definitely my worst trigger, but they are hardly the only one.

I am grateful to have a husband who has been so incredibly patient and accommodating over the years, but even he at times (understandably) becomes frustrated with my intolerance for noises. We have to eat dinner with the television on and with me at a safe distance from him so that I don't hear him chewing. When I go to sleep at night, if he stays in the next room watching television, he has to turn down the volume - or better yet, turn it off altogether - because I find the sound distressing.

One thing that is particularly interesting to me, and certainly frustrating, is that these various noises still bother me so much despite progressive hearing loss over the years as a result of otosclerosis. I frequently have trouble hearing others while involved in normal conversations, and yet I am still able to hear - and focus on - seemingly less audible noises such as chewing sounds, scratching, breathing, etc.

I feel such a bond to all of you who suffer from this affliction. It is awful, isolating, and life-altering. If no one else understands us, at least we understand each other. Thanks to everyone for sharing their stories.

Great! I always felt bad for having a go at my wife, the reason I got here was because its was doing my head in and I searched for it. To be honest I thought it was her, least I dont have to feel bad anymore. I never thought it was me or there would be an actual condition. I hate feeling so annoyed with my wife because I do love her so much.

I always thought I was being irritable which annoyed me because im usually very easy going. My brother smoking get on my noise too because he breathes out really loudly, he said to me that I always did too but I could never understand I always thoguht it was him. Today I feel a lot better!

Today my work colleague was eating so loudly that I was forced to search 'why can't I stand the sound of people eating' into a search engine, as a distraction. Today I have learned some new information about myself, thank you for this site.

I don't know what she was eating as she was shielded by her monitor, I was visualising a huge apple, or was it a carrot, celery? The noise was so excruciating and the anger so immediate and blinding, she really is lucky that monitor is not implanted in her head.

I fantasise and visualise harming whoever is creating the noise, like a misunderstood teenager, my dark thoughts run riot around my brain. I am virtually 40 years old, and feel like I should be overcoming my childhood anxieties by now, but I feel they are escalating. I either focus 1000% on the noise and it's creator or I remove myself from the source.

Who invented Wasabi peas and decided to put them in convenient pots to take into the office? Why does a keyboard have to make that repetitive clatter. How many times have I screamed in my head, 'you are writing an email not hitting out a frickin' life story, press send, press send'. Nuts, Crisps, Crunchy Fruit, Raw Vegetables all likely culprits, but the cat cleaning himself? Come on really? He has actually woken me at night with his incessant licking, only to find himself turfed out the house so I can get back to sleep.

Leg shakers, pen tappers, pocket change janglers, come the revolution they will all be lined up, but front of the queue is reserved for the noisy and untidy eaters. It's usually Ok if I am eating too, and I usually try and start eating something to cover the noise whether hungry or not. At a meal time if I notice someone eating too quickly or heaven forbid with their mouth open, I find myself turning into the opposite of all those I despise. I will eat REALLY slowly, tidily, no cutlery scraping, with my lips tightly pressed and sitting bolt upright with a smugness that surprises me. I'm always the last to finish.

I watched a women eat a bag of raisins on the train this morning (no noise) but she was throwing them into her mouth at such a speed that I was repulsed and moved myself to another carriage.This is the first time I have put these feelings into words, I feel a slight release, but underneath I am still convinced I am an intolerant human being.

When I was a young teenager my mum told me a story of an old lady who ate alone at a huge dining table. The table used to be filled with happy friends and family sharing food together. The lady started to notice their annoying habits and one by one banned them from her table, until she spent her days living and eating alone. I'm trying to avoid turning into this old lady.

I am so happy I've found this website. I literally thought I was just a bit weird. I noticed that I was very sensitive to certain eating noises my dad made. He is a noisy eater anyway, but the worst thing is after he's eaten he will then persist to 'clean' his mouth with his tongue. The noise affects me so much; I feel enraged, like a want to smash something, and I've even cried over it. It's like a mixture of pure frustration and anger. I think I first noticed it bothered me when I was about 13/14. It's moved on to other noises too: sniffing, chewing gum, coughing, burping ect. It doesn't really bother me when women do it, or even younger males. It's got to the point where I won't eat with my parents, ever. I don't even like to be in my dads presence for too long incase he makes some noise I find offensive. I don't feel I can mention it as he's not the most understanding. I understand there is no cure, and although I've scared myself with how angry it's made me, I feel so relieved to know I'm not the only one affected.

Excellent site. I am in the same situation as most of the other sufferers who have written about their experiences on this site as I have had no idea there were other people with the same problem and I am now 40. I hated talking about the instant rage that would come to me when I heard certain noises as I could't even explian it myself, so I didn't expect anybody else to understand it. My Fiance, who has been fantastic and has tried to help me deal with the problem, found this site today and I am so relieved that I now have a place to start to try to understand it better by reading other peoples experiences. It is a cliche but it genuinely is like a huge weight that I have been carrying for 30 years has now lifted. It has always been eating noises, especially chewing gum that triggered the rage, but it now comes with keyboard noise and heels on our wooden floor. Now I know it is called Misophonia, I can try to get involved with speaking to other sufferers who genuinely understand the instant rage and need to get away when hearing certain sounds. Is there a forum that does not involve facebook as I am not a facebook user? Many Thanks

I have had this since age 10 , I'ld always thort I was a crazy ( untill last night when I found this site) and that I'm an ass hole as I cant control how i feel about certain noises .It controls my life, I can't go to the movies , or sit with my family at dinner. Ive dumped boyfriends because they couldnt understand why I didn't want to be near them.(breathing eating the usual triggers) .I am copping with it but I've heard this gets worse with age I'm so not keen for that .we need a cure.

I can't tell you just how relieved I am. This whole thing started around the beginning of highschool, and it's been absolute insanity trying to concentrate in class. A lot of the time it's visual triggers (people tapping their feet), and sometimes there will be people clicking their pens or mumbling and humming. These drive me absolutely nuts, and it takes a great deal of willpower for me to just try and ignore it and pay attention. I've been driven to tears and, at home, when my parents will snore or mumble, I've just sat there holding my ears and ramming my head against something. It's hard for me to ask people to stop, and it's only gotten worse. This website has literally saved my life, and now I feel like I can do something and I feel like I'm not alone here. THANK YOU.

Finally there's a name to it. Too bad there's not even a German Wikipedia entry. I might translate the English one... Now I wish I would've completed my psychology degree, there need to be some statistics and awareness.

Oh how do I hate some noises. Oh how often I had to move appartments because of them - basses, loud TVs... The newest reason for my next move is that I can hear my neighbours talk loudly - in their rooms, in the stairway and they're always slamming doors and leave the car running for minutes. And why need two people slam the car doors up to 14 times every time they get into/ out of the car? I'm going to lose my mind... I really want to live in a house somewhere in the woods, that sounds like heaven to me.

You know, I actually lost my last job because of this. There was this girl, she was eating two apples a day and a whole pack of rusk (about 10-12 pieces). RUSK. All the while smacking her lips and chewing with her mouth open. It was very quiet in the room, too, so I could hear her very well. :) She sat two meters away from me and I felt I was going insane, so every time she ate something I put a finger in the ear that pointed in her direction to prevent hearing the noises too badly. Long story short, I was called weird and other people shouldn't have to suffer from having to look at my behaviour (yeah, the rusk eating girl actually complained), so I was let go. I felt so, so relieved.

Anyway. Love the white noise tips, I had actually found out about this about a year ago when I couldn't use earplugs too often because they hurt my ears. Too bad there's nothing that helps against basses, as far as I know - not that this is a problem right now, but I'd like to be prepared. Any suggestions?

I have just read an article in the Daily Mail and thought "oh my goodness that sounds like me!" I just thought i was an irritable grouch! So i googled the term and found your site.

I know i have an issue with loud noises from my dyslexia, i have it quite mildly but when seeing a specialist he asked me do i have problems with loud noises near me like people whistling. YES! he said it was a common thing with dyslexics as the loud noise so over powers the brain that it affects your ability to see and then you get the rage as it is making it hard for you to process visually.

So not only am i having problems with LOUD people shouting to each other across desks when they only sit 2 feet apart because of my vision, people eating is enough to make me want to gun everyone down. I am particularly bad with mouth noises, slurping, eating with mouths open and chewing/swallowing sounds. It brings out rage in me that i know is completely irrational. Also another one that can bring me to a screaming fit is our beagle licking the kitchen floor. The poor creature get regularly yelled at for that.

I just put it down to my really good hearing (i can hear conversations from quite a distance, also i can still hear high pitch fox scarers in my 30's which normally adults can't hear) but having read people comments i think it might be more!

I will definitely see if i can find a sympathetic doctor to investigate this so i can make sense of it in my head and hopefully deal with it better.

Thank you so much for this site :)

20/20 did a report last night on this condition.. I sent a link to my sister. My dad who has past on, my sister and I have been suffering from this. The sad thing is that until last night I would just see myself as problematic. I would tell myself that this is a learned behavior and that there is something seriously wrong with our family. I know the incredible frustration and anger that it can cause. I beleive there are many different levels that each person has. I can simply get away from the situation and I regain composure. My poor little sister's life has been controlled or should I say out of control her whole life.
One of the great things about knowing that this is an acknowledged medical condition gives me a lot of relief. Maybe the people in my life can see it in a diferent light. My husband is compassionate about it, although I will usually just quietly slip away from the offensive noise. Sometimes he gets upset with me. I might make a face or get up for no reason and he knows that I am bugged. I sent him the information and maybe it will make a little more sense. thanks for the studies and info.

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