Wait just a second - OTHER people have this????

[Guest guest]

Dear friends,

Three days ago my life changed forever when I stumbled upon the Wikipedia page

for something called " Misophonia " while - fittingly - searching for a decent

pair of noise cancelling headphones.

Reading various blogs and discovering this group has been the most surprising

thing that's ever happened to me. I still can't believe it. I figure tomorrow

I'll wake up and it will all have been a dream.

I can't believe other people feel the same way that I do.

I can't believe other people experience the rage, the panic, the need to GET OUT

and GET AWAY. I've always believe I was the only one. I guess now that sounds

incredibly self-centered, but I've lived all over the U.S. and traveled

extensively and have never, NEVER met anyone who understood what I was talking

about when I complained about sounds.

I broke my lease on my apartment after a week because I could hear the

neighbor's tv through the wall.

I weep like a baby when I ride on airplanes because I can hear people snoring

through my blasting headphones. (I have to turn the volume all the way up to

drown out the sound of OTHER people's headphones).

Hearing, seeing and smelling someone chew gum makes me want grab the nearest

baseball bat, or physically reach in and grab the gum out of their mouth and

throw it on the floor.

I've never had a real romantic relationship - in part because I can't sleep in

the same bed as my partner. My last relationship ended over a fight about his

gum chewing.

HOW IS IT that all of these things are related? I thought they were my own

freakish idiosyncrasies! Not only are they related, but other people have the

same reactions over the SAME THINGS?

I can't even begin to wrap my mind around it. I'm 30 years old and I've suffered

through this since I was 7. I've been on multiple antidepressants, seen

therapist after therapist...

This is already too long and there is so much to say but what I would

love...what I would love is for someone to just confirm for me that I'm not

dreaming...that this THING, this crazy thing that I've never been able to

explain is actually a real thing, something that other people might understand.

I fantasize about opening little coffee shops called " A Quiet Place " where the

rules would be something like this:

1. No gum chewing (of course), no nachos, NO POPCORN

2. No headphones except SILENT noise cancelling headphones

3. No whistle-nose breathers allowed

4. Quiet typing in some rooms, no typing allowed in others

Would you come? And while I'm at it, couldn't we have separate airplanes, buses,

trains, movie theatres, and restaurants for 4S people? Has anyone started a

dating site for misophonics?

Flabbergastedly Yours,

Rebekah