If you’re the kind of person who feels a fiery rage inside at the sound of someone else’s lip-smacking, crisp crunching or gum-chewing, you may have Misophobia.
The phrase was coined at the beginning of the 21st century by a team of researchers studying ear ringing. It means a hatred of sound, but more specifically refers to a hatred of human sounds.
For some people, this loathing could be of clinical severity – causing extreme distress, anxiety and anger.
Given the relative newness of the terminology, there are some arguments among different factions of the scientific community as to its relevance.
MentalFloss points to an Amsterdam-based research project in 2013, which found that people with misophonia avoid social situations and use headphones to try to block out the offending sounds, experiencing daily stress over avoiding triggers.
Other researchers have suggested that the condition could be a mere symptom of other underlying psychiatric disorders, pointing to generalised anxiety and obsessive compulsive disorder.
Margaret and Pawel Jastreboff from Emory University originally coined the term and argue that the condition is associated with decreased sound tolerance, with a spectrum of experiences observable.
Slate points to another study of almost 500 college students at the University of South Florida, which found that almost 20 per cent reported symptoms.
Researchers in that study also found that misophonia symptoms tracked with symptoms of psychiatric conditions like anxiety, depression, and obsessive-compulsive disorder.
