Do you get angry after hearing someone chew or swallow?

misophonia chewing swallowing

This is commonly known as Sound Rage and is yet to be classified disorder called Misophonia. For some it is so extreme they are unable to sit at the same table with loved ones. When they hear the sound that “annoys” them, the so called trigger sound they experience an immense rush of anger and disgust, often requiring great restraint to control the need to physically hit something.

Ironically, the people who develop extreme levels of Misophonia are usually quite mild mannered and sensitive by nature. It is their very sensitivity that is part of the acquiring this debilitating disorder. The problems starts normally around 11 in the teenage years and often gets worse. Initially it is just one person who doing the chewing, tapping or swallowing etc. that annoys them but as time goes on the sounds gets generalised to others as well as to other sounds. Most Doctors don’t even know that this disorder exists, so go to a place that has experience in treating Sound Rage. If they offer you exposure therapy, refuse as this makes it worse.  Experienced Clinical Psychologists offer a combination of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, neural re-patterning and Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing Therapy like at EMDR Therapy Sydney.

I know this because the 32 year old son of a close friend of mine got treated and although it is still early days for the first time there is hope as for the first time he can tolerate being at the same table as his wife and kids.

Their is a good book on this if you want to gain more understanding:

Cheers,

Sofia.