Loud chewing, slurping, lip smacking: all sounds that drive me absolutely mad.
I don’t want to be like this, I really don’t. I am a people pleaser to the core, and giving my mom the death stare while she crunches on some chips just feels somewhat out of my control. Since my early teens, I have developed an annoyance towards the sounds associated with eating: chewing loudly, slurping, crunching, spit swooshing (this list could go on forever)! It doesn’t happen all the time and I realized early on that the people who live in my house — my mom, my dad, and my sister — trigger me the most.
I’m a very dramatic person — I’ll be the first one to admit it. So, it’s no surprise I’d constantly be told to “get over it,” or to “stop judging everyone else” while I too was chewing loudly. I just felt like nobody understood; I didn’t purposely go to the dinner table with the intention of critiquing. It’s an overwhelming annoyance that consumes me completely.
I got to a point that I wanted to look into this; I’ve struggled with it for years, and the chances are, if you’re struggling, someone else is or has too. The first thing that popped up when I searched, “Hating the sound of loud chewing,” was misophonia.
Misophonia is classified by Medical News Today as a disorder where people have strong negative reactions to normal human sounds. Misophonia can lead to feelings of pain, fear, and anxiety; studies have shown that people with this disorder also struggle with symptoms of anxiety, depression, and neuroses. Symptoms of misophonia include: annoyance and disgust turned to anger, becoming verbally and physically aggressive, and taking evasive action around the person making the sound.
I struggle with anxiety, in past and present terms, therefore it is interesting for it to be so closely related to misophonia. I also find similarities in the way I feel I need to leave the dinner table and sit on the couch, or leave the room all together as my form of evasive action. Medical News Today discusses how there is not a cure for misophonia, but rather there are a list of coping mechanisms: these include practicing self-care, using noise-cancelling headphones, or drowning out the triggering sound with something you enjoy.
All in all, I believe open dialogue is essential in good mental health. Doing research on misophonia, even without an official diagnosis, gives me comfort and ease that there are other people struggling along with me. I think my next step would be to find my own little way of dealing with everyday life, and to continue to educate myself on the disorder.