Do small sounds like chewing, coughing, and slurping drive you batcrackers? Maybe you have misophonia. It is a real thing.
Listen to this recording of a woman eating carrots. Does it make you want to die?
IT MAKES ME WANT TO DIE.
Is this picture of this smug couple eating pretzels low-key hurting you?
So WTF is misophonia? Misophonia, otherwise known as "selective sound sensitivity syndrome," is characterized by feeling a deep irritation and anger at certain sounds.
While it's unclear just how many people suffer with it, those who DO have it know that the struggle is REAL. How do you know you have it? Loud chewing is your sworn enemy.
Just food sounds in general make you simultaneously whimper in pain and scream with rage.
You have to sit in the aisles at the movies to try to be around fewer people in case someone is chewing popcorn too loud.
Someone whispering in your ear might as well be stabbing your face with a fork.
You think popping gum in public should actually be illegal.
Actually, chewing gum at all should probably be outlawed, tbh.
Like, this is often your inner monologue, for real.
You've avoided dinner parties where you know a loud chewer will be.
In fact, sometimes you just have to leave the room when chewing is involved at all.
You have to turn off certain commercials because the sound levels aren't right.
Certain sounds and pitches are just TEW MUCH.
Which makes you just wanna break things sometimes.
You seriously consider whether you should always live on the top floor because you cannot deal with terrible upstairs neighbor noises.
View this video on YouTube
Case in point, these people.
Work can feel like a fucking battleground.
Whistling at work? NO.
Loud, snorty breathing? NO.
People tapping fingernails? Are you a monster sent down from the hellscape?
And hey, you, people who don't turn the sounds off when you're playing games on your phone, ARE YOU A LITERAL DEMON?
How bad is it? Some of us have taken to making v. specific playlists.
But! There is some good news. According to a study from Northwestern University, people with sound sensitivity might actually be geniuses.
The study tested a hundred people and found that those who had a strong sensitivity to sound also showed the highest propensity for creativity.
So hold on to that the next time you hear the constant drip, drip, drip of a distant faucet, or the never-ending tapping of your upstairs neighbor's heels.
