As I write this, a woman sitting next to me is eating, and it makes me want to unhinge my jaw and scream as loud as I can, or tear out fistfuls of my hair, or smack the food out of her hand. Or all of the above.
I have a condition called misophonia (literally “hatred of sound”) and according to a study by King’s College London, as many as one in five people struggle with it significantly. It’s characterised by a negative emotional reaction to specific sounds, most commonly eating noises, heavy breathing or repetitive sounds like pen clicking or nail biting.
