You’re definitely not alone - and to me, this video helps me attempt to circle towards why I think that is. To me, the idea of this type of intimate closeness with a stranger is deeply disturbing and uncomfortable. Heck, it would be so with the vast majority of people I am intimately close with. While I understand some of the real-world examples given - a head massage at the hairdresser’s might feel good, for example - they also highlight this discomfort to me, as any such pleasure is always strongly tinged with a feeling of deep discomfort.
This also stands out in how ASMR toes the line towards sexuality - from my point of view, it seems that a portion of the pleasure of ASMR is tied up in not just believing that it is in no way sexual but that it doesn’t relate to sexuality at all, and as an extension of that that there is nothing potentially problematic or questionable about this extreme level of intimacy with a stranger. (Or just the conviction that if it was sexual, that would be fine too.) Which is just baffling and completely impossible to understand to me. Even if completely non-sexual in nature, this stuff goes so fully in on intimacy that it becomes uncomfortable by default - there is no way that this level of intimacy with some random stranger wouldn’t be. To me, this reflects a fundamental difference in one’s understanding of how one’s own existence in the world relates to and affects others. The idea that taking deep sensory pleasure from the actions of some random stranger can ever be unproblematic is utterly baffling to me.
The “doctor/dentist visit” thing kind of illustrates this - whether you like it or not there is a clear parallel to droves of porn plots blatantly visible in this, and while, again, these videos are non-sexual, the idea that going to the dentists and having them whisper intimately to you and touch you softly while examining you is so friggin creepy. If that happened to me, I would RUN.
Of course, I also find mouth noises revolting, including from people I’m close to. There is absolutely no comfort to be found there - quite the opposite. I don’t suffer from misophonia (it’s not that strong), but there are extremely few situations in which I would want to be exposed to the noisy bodily functions of others.
Also worth noting: I generally find great pleasure in tactility and the noises and touch sensations of my surroundings. Clicky buttons or pens, nice feeling pencils, a good keyboard, a just-scratchy-enough rug, nice clothes and fabrics, food with great mouthfeel and texture, etc. But this is entirely contingent on this being my own physical experience, and is lessened by the presence of others, which takes attention away from it. ASMR to me seems like a physically removed, bizarro-world version of this, that drastically amplifies the social aspects that remove pleasure for me, while removing the physical ones that I do find attractive entirely.
