Eat, bite, gobble, nibble, chew

Hubby and I recently returned from a long weekend vacation.  One evening we were lounging in bed . . . me reading and he browsing the Intertubes.  He was also happily munching a snack . . . and it was driving me nucking futz!  Despite being engrossed in my book and all the ambient noise in the room, all I could focus on was his chomping, lip-smacking and slurping.  It was all I could do to contain myself and not roll him onto the floor and throttle the ever loving snot out of him.  I just covered my head with a pillow and did my very best to ignore his infuriating mastication.

Its obvious that it bothered me since I can clearly recall the incident.  Thankfully, no one was injured in the innocent eating of the snack.

It's not just hubby's eating that bothers me; as long as I can remember hearing other people eat his elicited an immediate response . . . rage.  Most times I can control violent urges . . . mostly.

Anyhoo . . . as it turns out, this response to annoying auditory stimuli is an actual disorder called misophonia. 

Hubby already thinks I'm a bit touched . . . perhaps he's right . . . I am mental!  But I conceal it fairly well, I’ll bet he never knew that it makes me crazy to listen to him (or anyone else) eat. 

Misophonia is little known disorder that affects a person's sensitivity to noise. For most people, it is only specific noises that trigger a powerful response.

For me its hearing people eat . . . **shudder** . . . but other people have different noises that set them off.

I work in IT.  One of my many responsibilities is providing for co-workers computer hardware needs.  There was a woman I worked with that was constantly complaining about other people’s keyboards.  She couldn’t stand the sound of other people typing.   Hello?  Working in an office?  People typing?  Yeah, that’s bound to happen.  I ended up having to get everyone in her vicinity silent touch keyboards so I wouldn’t have to listen to her bitch about it anymore.  Little did I know the poor sad woman had a brain disorder.  

My method of self-treatment is simply to serve dinner in the living room and eat while watching television.  But, if we’re eating at the kitchen table I have to have background noise like music playing or the television on to cover up any chewing noises.    Luckily, I have the added benefit of being deaf in one ear.  I can literally “turn a deaf ear” to that which irks me thus sparing hubby and others a sound thrashing.