Misophonia: angered by sounds
I thought I had this but it turns out I had children. I kid.
I’ve actually explained this to my wife before but there are certain sounds that drive me insane, make me uncomfortable or really piss me off. A continuous rap on a hard surface and I have to leave the room. The sound of babies crying, who are not my own, I cannot listen to. Or whining dogs.
September 9th, 2011 at 10:04 am
The one that chases me away faster than anything is the laugh track on a television “comedy”.
September 9th, 2011 at 10:21 am
The vacuum. I have no problem if I’m the one vacuuming, but if I’m trying to do something else and the vacuum is going it drives me batty.
September 9th, 2011 at 10:26 am
I ain’t scared of needles or Novocain, UV cured body putty or high-speed air tools, but that “fingernails on the chalkboard” sound conducted through my jawbone drives me nuts.
Not much I can do about that though.
September 9th, 2011 at 10:32 am
When Nancy Pelosi starts to speak…..
September 9th, 2011 at 11:01 am
Static drives me insane.
September 9th, 2011 at 11:02 am
*knock*
*knock*
*knock*
*knock*
*knock*
*knock*
*knock*
Is it working yet?
September 9th, 2011 at 11:04 am
and whining dogs make me want to drop kick them into the next county.
September 9th, 2011 at 11:08 am
It’s not a joking matter; it isn’t an ‘everybody has it’ type of diagnosis. The overarching term is sensory processing disorder (because touch is a more common trigger than sound). When this occurs in young children, it can usually be diagnosed by age 3. Treatment is therapy, desensitization, and extra attention.
If you feel physical pain from hearing a sound, get a fight-of-flight response from a gust of wind, or become suddenly violently angry at a certain sound, then you have sensory processing disorder.
Not liking baby crying or girls screaming is natural instinct.
September 9th, 2011 at 11:11 am
Misophonia…. When being an Asshole is defined as a disorder…
September 9th, 2011 at 11:16 am
Dentist drills.
And I think it’s this post of yours that caused that weird nickelodeon advertisement to pop up in your left sidebar, because your post contailed the words “children” and “kid”
September 9th, 2011 at 12:10 pm
Eating sounds, particularly crunching, make me want to punch people. It’s been that way since… by gosh, late childhood. I don’t do it, because I’m not an asshole, I usually just avoid eating with people. Trying to desensitize me intentionally would not be advised, however.
September 9th, 2011 at 1:05 pm
I can’t stand music droning through earphones.
Or other people’s music in general, especially when I’m inside my car or home and the sound source is outside.
September 9th, 2011 at 3:18 pm
@Mr Evilwrench – ditto everything you said. Add to that people mindlessly popping or snapping chewing gum, smacking their mouth or making “tasting” sounds (including my poor dog). If I ever have a nervous breakdown, it’s going to be because I’ll be in a situation where I cannot escape the source of said sound(s) for an extended period of time. It takes everything in me sometimes to control the rage it builds inside me. Funny, before I saw this article and comments, I’d never known anyone else to have this curse.
September 9th, 2011 at 8:02 pm
“The sound of babies crying, who are not my own, ”
In Walmart.
For Pete’s sake…make them *STFU* or take them home !!!
September 9th, 2011 at 8:03 pm
Very specifically; eating sounds, very close to me, when I’m not also eating. At a table with everyone eating it’s perfectly fine and dandy. The worst is when someone is standing over my shoulder eating when I’m busy. I’ve gone as far as notifying all the employees at work, but they seldom get it, and do it anyway. I consider it extremely rude.
My dog barking at other people. Sometimes other people’s dogs barking and crying for freedom or attention while their masters are away.
Both of the dog things I can attribute to actual common sense. My dog barking at other people is potentially socially destabilizing and rude. Some people are genuinely frightened by barking dogs. Other people’s dogs suffering in a kennel all day, while the owners are utterly oblivious, pisses me off. And the owners never understand what’s happening because when they see the dog, it’s always jumping for joy at their arrival. This probably means you, too. I really do not think it is a good idea, nor “humane” to have a dog in town.
Other people’s dogs barking at me I can handle. If they’re in my yard I’ll sprint after them, and then they’re bolting for home, quietly. Works every time. If they’re not in my yard or being obviously hostile, Meh. It’s normal background noise.
September 9th, 2011 at 9:58 pm
I suffer from misohornia myself
September 10th, 2011 at 1:41 am
Been to church lately? Let’s just say that the “worship songs” as they’re called these days, would make me feel very angry and un-Christian even if they weren’t electronically amplified. They’re either all New Agey in rhythm (none) with Female Appeal words, or vaguely rockish and dancey, or have some emotive soloist on the multimedia arting it up and emotionalizing as if he were screwing up the National Anthem at a football game.
Give me a good old Welsh hymn, any Sunday, to get me into the right mood.
But, yeah, it’s the guitars and electric amplification which are the worst parts.
September 10th, 2011 at 11:11 am
That explains what happens to me every time I hear the obumble speak…
September 10th, 2011 at 9:27 pm
Oh, Midwestern accents! I almost forgot. As Robert Heinlein, whose native speech was such and thus he oughta have known, said, the Corn Belt rasp is like somebody working a corkscrew into your ear.
September 11th, 2011 at 1:27 am
Dusty has a large blunt (also sharp) point here. I think of my own reactions to bad sounds, and some of them seem to be innate and deeply neural, some socially conditioned.
For instance, I love the sound of a two-stroke motor in a model airplane or motorcycle, and loathe the sound of a God-damned heptuply-condemned leaf blower.
On the other hand, with rare exceptions, when I hear dogs barking I immediately go into fight-or-flight mode, and I’ve mostly never met any dogs until I was already a grownup.
Oh, and pig sirens, and their blinkenlights: They turn those things on to frighten you and overload yer senses and confuse you, and then get all angry at you for being frightened and confused because of what they’ve done. Have I mentioned that I hate cops?
September 11th, 2011 at 5:03 pm
Crying/whining/screaming kids/dogs/cats. Can’t concentrate with that as background. Probably an amped up genetic response.
Boombox cars. It sounds to me as if every one has the same tape playing. Almost instantly triggers a very aggressive response in me. When I can spare the money, I’m going to build a boombox car killer-bot. A fast RC car with a high output stun gun hooked up to a couple of short whip antennas to drag across the underside should do it. Only real problem I see is it will also kill the auto’s ignition electronics at the same time. Would be preferable if they could drive off while they wonder what happened to their noise generator. Pretty sure it will fry EVERY electronic unit that is live when the high voltage spike hits.
September 11th, 2011 at 6:42 pm
Wow….now I know how to really annoy all of you who were so forthcoming about your conditions.
September 12th, 2011 at 9:45 am
I agree with Ellen.
I don’t watch any sitcoms, except mayber Seinfeld once a year.
But my wife watches, as her default station, 2 ans 1/2 Men or some other tripe which has that God-foresaken canned laughter every 30 seconds.
I leave the room.
I would rather listen to back-to-back mattress ads than canned laughter.