Misophonia

[thomas]

Today when I was checking for backlinks to the forum, I noticed that one of our older threads (Ramen eating noise) had been mentioned on a forum dedicated to misophonia.

Misophonia?

Yes, the hatred of sound. I have to admit that I had not been aware of this condition.

... a form of decreased sound tolerance. It is believed to be a neurological disorder characterized by negative experiences resulting only from specific sounds, whether loud or soft. The term is often used interchangeably with the term selective sound sensitivity. Misophonia has not been classified as a discrete disorder.

People who have misophonia are most commonly annoyed, or even enraged, by such ordinary sounds as other people clipping their nails, brushing teeth, eating, breathing, sniffing, talking, sneezing, yawning, walking, chewing gum, laughing, snoring, typing on a keyboard, whistling or coughing; certain consonants; or repetitive sounds. Some are also affected by visual stimuli, such as repetitive foot or body movements, fidgeting or any movement they might observe out of the corner of their eyes. Intense anxiety and avoidant behavior may develop, which can lead to decreased socialization. Some people may feel the compulsion to mimic what they hear or see.

The poster on the other forum seemed to be in particular irritated by the sounds people produce when eating and mentioned the slurping, sucking sounds of Asians eating ramen, although he seems to be confusing Japanese with Chinese:

Most Asian cultures have no or limited taboo on open-mouth-eating. In fact in Japan it is culturally relevant to make noises while eating, to show respect to the cook.

Reading through their forum I realized that I must be misophonically inclined, too. Although guilty myself, I cannot stand the sound of people snoring anywhere near me. Trucks with blaring loudspeakers during Japanese election campaigns? Makes me go berserk! The sound of rubbing styrofoam boxes: a medieval torture! My father slurping his soup over dinner when I was a child? Got me close to being disinherited on more than one occasion.

I definitely have to read up more on this condition.

What are your symptoms? How challenging is your local area in terms of sound pollution?

 

[Mark of Zorro]

I used to live about 60 yards away from a 6 a.m. wake up siren, a siren probably actually intended for use as an air raid siren. Somehow, I managed to go 3 years without killing anyone or even beating anyone into a vegetative state. But believe me, it was close. I actually went to a meeting of all the local big cheeses only to listen to crap of how I don't understand Japanese culture, as if air raid sirens have been used as alarm clocks since the days of Tokugawa. I am pretty sure I responded that very good and modern alarm clocks are available at convenience stores. Probably should have also said that that fact is REAL Japanese culture though hard for old geezers to grasp such a fact.

A friend of mine says he climbed the tower of the one near his house and cut the wires. I would have done that same except I had to go and open my big mouth and try and reason with geezers first, meaning everyone would know who did it.

I also had the misfortune of several times living near roosters. Never killed any of them either, somehow. You know, they don't crow when the sun comes up. They start crowing when the sun starts coming back round the Earth, like at 2 a.m. And I am sensitive to sound. I once woke up to a slight scraping sound and knew what it was instantly...my door off the hinges coming straight for my face...and in complete darkness caught it before it hit. Also I was once on a mountain top at night with a group of people talking...I heard someone coming and said so....everyone went quiet but heard nothing....started talking again....a minute later a few more people show up to the party. So yeah, noise bothers me a bit cause I hear it all.

I also lived in several place where they have fireworks, just the noisy exploding kind, on certain days from six a.m. then every half hour, especially on Sundays. I actually jumped in my car on morning to try and track the mofos down. Years later I was told that was announce days where there were local events. But I tell you, its lucky I never found the guys whose job it is to set them off. Might have bashed their heads with a rock.

And yeah, election vans, motorcycle punks, etc. And complaining will get you nowhere in Japan.

Of course, I am not sure if having noise ruin your sleep actually counts for this phobia. But I tell you what...if you have this, Japan is no place for you.

Cannot say I have ever been fond of smacking lips and other eating noises people make.

As for my place now, I guess I should count my blessings. Outside of the stupid gong at the local temple (which I can't hear inside) and those idiots practicing baseball with their stupid hoots and ahhhs its pretty quiet here. Pretty much nothing that ruins my sleep anyway.

But anyone thinking of coming to Japan...you have been warned.

 

[Tamayo]

Today when I was checking for backlinks to the forum, I noticed that one of our older threads (Ramen eating noise) had been mentioned on a forum dedicated to misophonia.

Misophonia?

Yes, the hatred of sound.

A friend of mine says he climbed the tower of the one near his house and cut the wires.

I couldn't help but to cackle maniacally when I read these

On a more serious note, however, I am incredibly bothered by certain noises. One of my biggest pet peeves is when someone opens my room door for whatever reason and they leave it open when they leave. I absolutely hate that faint white noise that comes from the rest of the house (to the point of anger and a bad mood). I'm not particularly bothered by the noises themselves, but I want the sounds to be muffled and quiter with no echo. The same goes for when I'm in the car. I always want the windows to be rolled up because I hate the sharp, high-pitched noises. I prefer for it to be muffled and quiet. You could imagine how heartbroken I was when my AC stopped working.

I've even talked about installing audio dampening so I can have a semi sound-proof room when I have a house and enough money to blow on it.

It's a little ironic, I think, that Japan -- at least from my position in America -- seems to always be portrayed as a quiet, peaceful place where people are always overly concerned about bothering one another. As much as I understand about the culture, I see that this is true in a lot of cases, but on the other hand, a lot of people seem to omit all of the ridiculous and unnecessary noise that people have to put up with over there.

 

[Mark of Zorro]

but on the other hand, a lot of people seem to omit all of the ridiculous and unnecessary noise that people have to put up with over there.

On TV a group of Japanese were congratulating themselves on how polite Japanese are, according to a "study" that was, of course, made by Japanese.

The Japanese do get pretty high marks even in my book, compared to most cultures. But yes, some of the incredibly rude things they do are WAYYYY over the top and I don't think I am speaking from a cultural perspective but rather just as a human being.

For example, ignoring an injured stranger who is not being tended to is way worse than bothering random people on a noisy train with your laugh or a bit of sound coming from your earphones. Japanese seem quite unaware of this.

Not that I could ever understand what a bit of noise in addition to the clack-clack, cl-clack of the train wheels on the rails, or the screeches of the brakes or the endless announcements over the loud speaker could possibly do to ruin one's feeling of inner peace. Gaijin should carry around earplugs to give as free gifts to geezers who complain that people are talking too loud during the train cacophony.

 

[Mark of Zorro]

Ah, this may be more relevant. I cannot stand songs on endless repeat, nor repeated announcements and such. I have actually turned off CD players in department stores for playing the same song over and over as I was shopping that area. Also people standing at doors saying "irasshaimase" over and over are quite infuriating. They may as well be saying "ira ira isshaimase"!

 

[neuro]

Misophonia research

Sound-Rage. A Primer of the Neurobiology and Psychology of a Little Known Anger Disorder (Chalcedony Press, 210 pgs) has just been published and is available from amazon.com.
The book provides compelling evidence that it is a developmental, neurological disorder, and presents detailed information on the brain regions implicated in the disorder, particularly the insular cortex and the anterior cingulate cortex. Other important areas of research discuss how the brain's ﾂ"hard-wiredﾂ" circuitry interprets stimuli as pain and affects behavior and emotions; how processing of visual and auditory stimuli overlap in the brain and result in creating new triggers; and how the brain uses mimicry to induce empathy and reduce the distress caused by triggers.
It presents a current state of knowledge to the public and provides another voice for hope, courage, and resilience. I hope this helps.

 

[Tamayo]

That's come really helpful information, neuro. Thank you!

 

[Haruspex]

Children are an inexhaustible source of sounds I find so deplorable I want to plug my ears with a pickaxe. I am unsure as to whether it is due to the sounds themselves being unpleasant to me, or because of their mindless repetition by sociopathic automatons, I just cannot tell. I often find myself picking up much more easily on aspects of the behaviour of strangers who don't make a good impression on me. If I saw and heard a guy wearing a tunic made out of meat at a vegan protest whistling to himself, I would be a lot more tolerant towards his whistling than towards the whistling of somebody reading Danielle Steel on public transportation... or anywhere for that matter.