Can’t stand the sound of your partner eating? You could be suffering from misophonia – it ruins one in five Brit lives
FIND it hard to sit in the same room as people chewing food?
Well, you’re not alone.
One in five Brits have a serious condition that makes them angry or upset at the sound of chewing.
British scientists say misophonia is a real health issue which plagues 18 per cent of UK adults – around 10million of us.
And it’s different to the mild irritation you experience while listening to your partner chomp down loudly on a steak.
Misophonia can leave sufferers feeling “trapped” or even “helpless” and can often lead to the breakdown of relationships and friendships.
To make matters worse, it’s not just chewing that can trigger people.
Other deal breakers include slurping, snoring, and heavy breathing.
The jury is out on whether it is a genetic condition or the result of previous trauma and research continues to see if it is caused by an auditory or neurological problem in the brain.
Despite it’s prevalence, only one in seven (14 per cent) of people in the study had heard of it.
Until very recently, sufferers have lived with the condition in silence as it is so poorly understood.
It wasn’t even granted a name until 2001.
Psychologist Dr Jane Gregory, from Oxford University, said: “Misophonia is more than just being annoyed by certain sounds.
“It’s about feeling trapped or helpless when you can’t get away from them.
She added: “It’s about feeling like there’s something wrong with you for the way you react to sounds, but also not being able to do anything about it.
“It can be such a relief for people to find out that they are not alone.”
The study by Oxford and King’s College London quizzed a group of 772 adults in the UK.
They were asked to rate their feelings towards several different everyday ‘trigger’ sounds.
It found 142 hit a threshold of “significant symptoms” of misophonia – 18.4 per cent.
Loud chewing triggered the most unhappiness among the survey respondents, whereas many of the other sounds triggered widespread irritation.
The study was published in the journal Plos One.