Misophonia and Aspies?

[Pondering]

So i just read about misophonia and realized that it sounds a lot like me but im not totally sure. Like the sound of people eating makes me unbelievably and incredibly angry. same with the sounds of loud coughs. And its nothing personal. Its just those sounds. And its not a mild frustration. Its anger i can barely control and hold sometimes. The feeling that comes with the sound is rather odd and difficult to explain. Can anyone relate? is it a common thing for aspies to have misophonia?

 

[MicroWeiss]

I don't know how common it is here. But it's an on-off thing with me, if I'm tired it's like sounds get amplified. I'm always the one getting mad and yelling at people for talking or watching tv late at night. Especially if there's high pitched voices, people yelling at eachother, just grating sounds. I've had nervous breakdowns and I can't deal with sounds at night well anymore, so I wear earplugs to sleep or else the sound of birds chirping wakes me up really early and is just super loud and annoying. Or like someone mowing their grass in the morning, or some neighbor kids outside yelling at eachother until midnight. Earplugs help me a lot, they sell them in the sleep section of walmart, but I don't have as many issues during the day for people eating or coughing, thankfully. I have had problems at work, where I had a new coworker arrive, and the guy was obviously not right in the head, and he talked to himself and made unusual noises, he would laugh loudly or say some phrase over and over again loudly to himself throughout the day. I couldn't deal with it, because he couldn't go 5 minutes without making weird noises. I tried to drown him out by listening to the radio with earphones, but I just don't enjoy noise all day every day, and it after a while it just bothered me that I had to sit within several feet of a brain-damaged mental patient. But at the same time, my very normal coworker went out and bought huge headphones at the same time, and for the same reason, she said the noise level went way up when he got hired and she was trying to drown him out too.

Eating never bothered me as much as most people, partly because I get asmr and enjoy hearing some eating sounds. listening to people eat can sound awesome, believe it or not. Coughing might bother me at night if I am trying to sleep, but I think most of the time I feel like people have a right to cough if they need to. The logic process of my brain seems to actively try to reason away the annoying features of coughing sounds, because I often start to get irritated, but then seem to stop myself.

There are several youtube content providers who make videos eating on camera, because people with asmr enjoy that sort of thing.

 

[Nitro]

just bothered me that I had to sit within several feet of a brain-damaged mental patient

I can understand your frustration with his annoying behavior.
Wear your earplugs or complain to management about him,but please tread lightly around using brain damaged mental patient as a reference to someone you dislike.
Many others like me had brain damage handed to us and had no choice in the matter.

Nitro,holding down the fort for his brain damaged peers

 

[watersprite]

I may have, and it gets much more powerful when I am tired or stressed, or recovering from an intense day. Sounds, either loud or repetitive or certain high pitched ones, are always a problem. Also, sudden sounds like a clap, cough, guffaw type laugh, door being slammed, plastic bag or styrofoam noise, etc., all create a startle and/or anger response - it's like a part of me is not under my conscious control. I'm working on accepting this about me and finding ways to ameliorate this.

 

[Shalott]

I'm not an Aspie (at least I haven't been diagnosed) but I have the same problems when people eat, and with coughs, and when they swallow saliva too hard. Oddly enough, never thought of it until now haha.

I think it might be related since, as far as I'm concerned, you can be very sensitive to sounds, tastes, textures, etc.

 

[StephF]

I have to agree with Nitro, using "mental patient" as a slur is just not acceptable.
I'm sure you wouldn't like if if someone referred to you as an aspie in a perjorative manner ?

 

[King_Oni]

Sound is a mixed bag for me I guess. I got sensitive hearing, which I, at least on a hobby level do something with. I'm a musician, I tinker around with production software and all that, so I kinda need my sensitive hearing.

However; I hear a lot of sounds people do not and that drives me up the wall. I don't think it's that I have an issue with specific sounds; but I have an issue with sound in general. I'm too much of a control freak to be "fine" if I hear something when I just don't want to hear a thing. It's like this "please be quiet, I'm trying to relax" but apparently your environment is not having any of that. And clearly it doesn't help if you hear a car driving around 5 blocks away.

It's among the reasons why my ceilingfan is on most of the time, even in the winter, just to block out some unwanted frequencies and actually help me get some sleep. It's much like noise-cancelling headphones in that regard.

So misophonia.. yeah, but in a different way I guess. No sounds in specific, but just the notion of sound of which I'm not responsible myself. Which is probably the most egotistical way in sound perception, lol.

 

[Judge]

I suppose the simplest way to address such an issue relative only to myself is to categorize sound in two basic ways. Sounds I welcome which are solicited, and those which are unwelcome as unsolicited sounds. Selective Misophonia?

I especially loathe unexpected, unsolicited low and high frequency sounds (in that order). Small wonder I sleep each night to ambient sound (rainfall). It mitigates many unwanted sounds that might occur in the night, interrupting my sleep.

 

[MicroWeiss]

I can understand your frustration with his annoying behavior.
Wear your earplugs or complain to management about him,but please tread lightly around using brain damaged mental patient as a reference to someone you dislike.
Many others like me had brain damage handed to us and had no choice in the matter.

Nitro,holding down the fort for his brain damaged peers

Well, fine, he's a genius. He still sits around at that company earning $40 an hour doing nothing but talking to himself. He literally never did any work and would corrupt files and cause damage. I quit my job and suffered a nervous breakdown for 7 months in the same line of work. But it's not his mental capacity that bothers me, it is his lack of ethics. Brain damaged people are fine by me.

Anyway, I talked to management about him and they admitted he couldn't work, but due to politics there was never going to be anything done about it.

I got a new job last month earning half as much money, but with a manager I can deal with. I tried to talk to my last manager -before- they hired this guy, and got shooed out of his office like I was stupid for having an opinion. I understand the politics behind why they hired a person who couldn't work, but I don't agree with it. They were trying to fudge the numbers, and this guy had been a leech at engineering companies for well over 20 years. They wanted to say to our customers that on paper we have someone with 20 years experience (to pretend we could get a lot more work done.) To management it was all a numbers game.

 

[MicroWeiss]

I have to agree with Nitro, using "mental patient" as a slur is just not acceptable.
I'm sure you wouldn't like if if someone referred to you as an aspie in a perjorative manner ?

I have heard it and didn't mind, if it's not mean-spirited or directed at me or for the motive to demean a certain people group. Anyway, I have a lot of anger issues, I don't know how to express it right. Next time you have someone ignore you, and destroy work you care about for months while you do their work for them just let me know what flowery language you use referring to them.

Regarding my mental condition, if I have to accept that I have problems and might not be as valuable to society that I would without these conditions, well, that is just reality. I don't think I need to be reminded of it, like if someone wanted to point it out all the time and be a prick, I can see how that could be bad, but that's not what I'm trying to do here. Either you can't read my intentions, or I can't express them very well. But whatever. I offend people without trying all the time, it's regrettable, but on some level I don't think people who get offended are interested in understanding me anyway.

 

[Nitro]

As a former business manager,I understand the silly values used to do business on many levels. They were trying to use false information to add to their credibility and your manager was only a yes man doing his job,however poorly it was to the employees. It's a shame you fell into a raw deal as a result of management's poor decisions.


I will admit,I read it differently. I guess what troubled me about it is having brain damage automatically places one in the mental patient category to begin with and we don't need reminded of the state we are in,we live it.

 

[garnetflower13]

I sympathize with Microweiss. I am sure he was not trying to cast aspersions upon anyone by using the term brain damaged. He was just venting and happened to use a term that seemed to be casting said aspersions. I often do the same myself in venting, and although I am seeking understanding and validation, unfortunately more often than not, my choice of words offends someone. Suddenly that poor choice of words is all that is noticed and not the original issue. Let's cut him some slack, shall we?

 

[Mytrice]

So i just read about misophonia and realized that it sounds a lot like me but im not totally sure. Like the sound of people eating makes me unbelievably and incredibly angry. same with the sounds of loud coughs. And its nothing personal. Its just those sounds. And its not a mild frustration. Its anger i can barely control and hold sometimes. The feeling that comes with the sound is rather odd and difficult to explain. Can anyone relate? is it a common thing for aspies to have misophonia?

I can completely relate to this! My siblings are both home from university at the moment and they both have colds. Now I have sniffing and sneezing in stereo sound and I cannot bear it. My sister eats very noisily and I have to sit next to her at meal times. I tell her to stop it but just get told off for being rude. Sometimes the sniffing and chewing sounds just make me so angry. I can feel the frustration boiling inside of me. I'm not an agressive person at all but at some points I've just wanted to yell or hit the table or scream. I've never heard of misophonia before but I will definitely read about it.

 

[wyverary]

I think there is a certain line to be drawn between misophonia and simple sound sensitivity. I have an NT friend with misophonia and it really can be debilitating at times. Certain films she can't watch because of, say, too much slurping noises; podcasts where there are auditory artifacts because of, say, a shaky Skype connection. I have a really good ear thanks to some excellent musical training, and can suss out subtle details in any recording...one of the reasons that drew me into one of my special interests, I suppose, home audio. Sure, I can get annoyed, but there's a difference. I can only imagine what it's like for someone with the condition, and the steps they have to take to avoid anything that could trigger their auditory sensitivity.

 

[Naturalist]

I don't know whether I have misophonia, but certain sounds do make me almost instantly angry. Sadly, they are also sounds I cannot easily avoid: the screeching flat melodies of the ice cream trucks that drive all over town EVERY DAY; the sound of leaf-blowers (also used on a daily basis "maintaining" the grounds where I work); the department printer which is next to my workstation at my job; and, yes, people chewing loudly. Also certain voices (including many female voices). Lately my husband has decided he needs a throat lozenge before bedtime and he sucks and crunches on it while I am trying to relax, and it makes me feel like hitting him with a brick. It takes all my effort not to scream at someone when they are making the noises that are so painful and irritating. Everyone I know is very critical of the fact that I get so angry so quickly over such routine sounds, but it isn't something I choose, the feeling just happens. Fortunately I have found ways of bringing myself out of the anger--often by humming, which effectively cancels some of the annoying noise--but sometimes my coping mechanisms aren't deemed appropriate for certain settings.

 

[qwerty]

Some sounds actually feel VERY, VERY painful to me, when I was really little I made my self a long pole thing to press the flush on the loo because i just couldn't stand to be closer to that sound. I am actually considering wearing earplugs when i go out. GRRRR and whoever invented those pop off valves that some cars have is as evil as Hitler, walking around then out of no where there is this "PUTWISSSHHHH" and I feel my head is made of thin ice and someone just dropped an anvil on it.

 

[Slithytoves]

I've had misophonia since childhood. Eating sounds are the worst; I can't even sit at the same table with a noisy eater, or share close quarters with someone who chews gum the least bit audibly. These noises don't just annoy me, they actually enrage me. The sounds of my dog licking herself, or of a clock ticking or faucet dripping in a otherwise quiet room, do the same.

I have two Aspie friends outside of these forums who also have acute misophonia. I only really know three Aspies outside of AC, so that leads me to suspect it's probably pretty common. As wyverary said, though, there's a distinction between typical Aspie auditory sensitivity and the kind of symptoms we're experiencing. I know other Aspies who are highly sensitive to certain sounds, but not the the extent that they induce anger or extreme disgust as found in someone with misophonia.

 

[Harrison]

someone who chews gum the least bit audibly. These noises don't just annoy me, they actually enrage me.

o...k

 

[Slithytoves]

o...k

You've already passed that test.

 

[DogwoodTree]

I guess count me on the "has it" side. All my life...long before I knew about AS and sensory sensitivities...I've been extremely bothered by mouthy and nosey sounds. Breathing (especially snoring--ACK!!), eating, sneezing, blowing a nose, sniffling...especially if they're repeated over time (like when eating a meal or listening to someone snore)...might as well be scratching fingernails on a chalkboard. I thought I was just being overly sensitive, picky, and controlling. But I've actually had to leave the room many times...spent many nights sleeping on the sofa or even on the floor...just to get away from persistent body noises.