Misophonia at the workplace

June 5, 2012

Hi everyone! This is my first post in this group, although I have been following

all your posts for a couple months now! It is great to see such a supportive

environment filled with people who have been tormented with this condition just

like me!

I have been dealing with misophonia since I was very young. Started with my

parents chewing, then my sister coughing, then pencils tapping, then pencils

against paper, then feet brushing on carpet... now I'm up to everything under

the sun with my number one trigger being BANGLE BRACELETS! This might seem like

a weird trigger, but when you sit in an office next to a woman who snaps her gum

and rattles her bangle bracelets ALL DAY EVERY DAY (maybe I have just started to

associate the bangles with the gum) it drives you nuts! I also sit in an office

across from an incessant granola cruncher/cougher/sniffler.

So, here I am in my office listening the bangles/gum snapper and I just needed

to vent. I just started at this job about 2 months ago, and have seen other

people (in cubicles) wearing headphones. I started to wear headphones but was

told a few days later by my boss that someone " at a very high level " (I'm

assuming a VP) said that I was giving off the wrong impression by wearing

headphones in an office. NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!! MY LIFE IS OVER!!!!!!!!! At my

past job, I was told I gave off the wrong impression by having my office door

shut all the time, so I don't want to make that mistake here. I have a small

radio that plays but does nothing to block the noises coming from the door. I

brought in a white noise machine, no help...

What else can I try? Do I go to HR or my boss and try to explain misophonia?

Will they just assume that this is some ridiculous, made-up, crazy mental

problem like my whole family assumes?

Or... do I sit here and listen the the gum and chewing and coughing and freaking

BANGLE BRACELETS all day just counting down the hours until 5 pm... giving off

good impressions on the outside (while being silent and angry on the inside)so I

can go home at the end of the day and yell at my boyfriend for chewing his

dinner too loudly??

Oh someone please find a cure...................... if some experimental drug or

therapy comes out - sign me up!

Okay. Done with my rant. I will drop my mic and exit stage left.

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