Originally published at: Scientists uncover the real reason why loud eaters and mouth breathers gross us out | Boing Boing
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A topic to chew on for a while… The conclusion may be a bit hard to swallow… 
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This has a ring of truth to me as a misophonia sufferer. I had to leave an office job because of my colleagues popping gum and chewing loadly and I found my self mirroring them to relieve the stress so that I could do my job. Eventually it became too much and I left a role I was doing well in, up for potential management role. Anyway, when I read about misophonia being recognized it was a real relief. Soon after I was diagnosed bi-polar incidentally.
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I hope I’m not going off topic but around the same time as I realized misophonia was a thing, I also learned that I wasn’t alone in strongly experiencing ASMR. I was glad not to feel alone in these experiences. I’ve considered whether misophonia and asmr are on a kind of spectrum but I don’t know if that’s been studied. Any thoughts or info guys?
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My spouse has a kind of anti-ASMR wherein very small sounds (clicking, tapping, etc.) really bother her. I’d certainly file that under the misophonia spectrum, if it exists. Unfortunately for our relationship, sometimes, I’m a nail-biter (yeah, gross, I know, but I can’t stop).
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I would drive an office mate crazy – not intentionally – by “unlocking” my wrist. (I suffered a triple fracture as a child, and ever since, the wrist occasionally “locks” a bit. The unlocking is like cracking knuckles… only louder.)
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Not to diminish anyone’s disorder, but I would think for the general population it’s a cultural phenomenon. For example, in Japan noisily slurping is the polite and socially acceptable way to eat ramen.
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makes total sense. I’ve always heard if you are annoyed by someone its because you dislike or fear that trait in yourself. on an emotional level that seems true with myself when i stop and check myself.
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Makes me wonder if the brain connection they saw is more related to culture…like, I was scolded meanly as a child for chewing too loudly or sniffling or any of that stuff. I’m definitely on the proposed “misophonia spectrum,” but wonder if I would be if there wasn’t that history.
I’d like to think I’m more nuanced than one of Pavlov’s dogs, but maybe not. 
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Let’s have a bit less of that lip, sonny. Ok?
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Perhaps the cultural phenomenon is that in Japan it is considered far more impolite and socially unacceptable to complain about smacking and slurping noises regardless of one’s own distress than it is to make those noises in the first place.
I dated someone once who used to like to eat cereal in bed, and I thought I was crazy because the sound of it in an otherwise quiet room made me incredibly stressed out and angry, but in thinking that I also was far too mortified to complain about it. Only years later did I discover that other people had the same experience.
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When I was little, my older and significantly bossy sister scolded me whenever I shuffled my feet. Now I can’t stand the sound. Just last week when there was a pack of (masked 
) kids running around the grocery store, all that bothered me was the one kid who shuffled her feet. 
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Sorry, I just couldn’t resist…I suppose that makes it also a rather Pavlovian response.
I really hated all but one of the food-related jobs I had - I eventually became really disgusted by watching and hearing people eat. The German deli was fine b/c so few actually sat down and ate.
Since the approach of menopause, many noises that had never bugged me became exceptionally irritating.
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