Wednesday, February 25, 2015

Noise for News



Another New York Times piece on misophonia, the sound disorder I chronicle my battle with in my memoir, "Wasn't Tomorrow Wonderful?"

Dr. Barron Lenrner, a fellow sufferer, writes:
For me, one of the most frustrating aspects of misophonia is what I call the “incredulity factor.” For years, I could not believe that my friends and relatives were not getting as upset at what I considered rude behaviors. They were getting frustrated with me for focusing on sounds they did not really hear. 
One of the advantages of defining misophonia is that it reminds those with the condition that only a small percentage of the population — no one knows the exact number — is affected. As one commentator wrote online, “I had to learn this is MY problem, not the problem of other people.”
As nice as it is to not feel so alone, truth be told there would be no need to call it anything if some people weren't so incredibly rude.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I suffer from Misophonia. If someone is smacking on food, it not only disgust me to no end, it enrages me. I thought I was the only person that had this reaction to people eating until I read your book. It's like I have supersonic hearing when it comes to people eating or smacking on food.

James Greenlee said...

I'm not sure it's so rare, it's just that it's different sounds for different people, and at different sensitivity levels.

I've noticed certain accents (heavy Indian for one) drive me nuts. "Moist mouth," particularly by someone using a microphone (Dr. Laura had this amongst her many other faults), some--but not all--noisy eating, excessive talking over an office intercom. . . all of these things can make me want to punch someone. My husband is particularly sensitive to traffic noise and barky dogs in the neighborhood, I mean to the point of irrational responses.

Yep, I think this is a bigger issue than has been covered.

Daniel E. Potter said...

And I thought I was the crazy one! Thanks Kenneth