Misophonia.

[pseudomonas]

I wonder if my reaction to sniffing noises constitutes misophonia^*. Basically, the sound of someone sitting there sniffling (for instance when they have a cold but no tissues) brings out approximately the same level of reaction in me as the sound of someone retching continuously does in (as I understand it) more or less everyone. Headphones & loud music are quite useful when it's a colleague sitting at the next desk :(

^*Not to be confused with misophagia, which is eating tasty tasty fermented soya and rice paste.

Comments

[the_alchemist.livejournal.com]

Misophonia doesn't really officially exist, so there are no diagnostic criteria, but there is this scale (http://www.misophonia-uk.org/the-misophonia-activation-scale.html) (made by someone with misophonia, not a clinician), so if that looks familiar, particularly the middle and higher numbers, then probably yes?

Personally, I find the sound of someone retching continuously deeply unpleasant, but different in kind from as well as milder than a misophonia reaction (and sniffing is one of my big triggers). But everyone's different, and misophonia hasn't been studied very much at all.

If I had to compare misophonia to any kind of more common reaction to noise, it would be to fingernails scraping down a blackboard, but it's not quite like that either.

[pseudomonas]

My version of the fingernails thing is scraping ice. I shudder imagining it, but it doesn't wind me up in the same way.

Sniffling: hit 6 on that scale today, which was what made me wonder. I'm not after a medical diagnosis, just interested in the phenomenon.

[pseudomonas]

Maybe screaming-baby would be a better example than retching. It's got elements of both; the disgust and the anxiety.

[andrewhickey.info]

If I'd realised that it had that effect on you, I'd have warned you a lot more not to sit near me at conference...

[pseudomonas]

no worries - I didn't actually notice you sniffling. I'm fine with nose-blowing or nose-picking or coughing (beyond not wanting to be infected), it's just the sniffing-instead-of-blowing thing.

[hatam_soferet]

I didn't know it made you go like that, I thought you were just fussy.

[pseudomonas]

I thought I was too until I realised that it was actually making me panicky, and it kinda clicked that it might be the same kind of aversion I've seen other people have to eating noises.

[hatam_soferet]

Another tool in the arsenal of How To Wind You Up, great!