Living with someone with misophonia

January 27, 2012

I'd like to start this off by saying I don't actually suffer from misophonia or

sound sensitivity. Noises like people chewing with their mouth open, loud bass

in passing cars and teeth on silverware have always been bothersome, but never

to the extent that some people describe.

I originally started looking for information on this because I'm sure my

boyfriend has it. At first when I sent him a link to the sound sensitivity site

he was a little.. offended I guess? He took it as me saying there's something

wrong with him. But after he read through the site and realised maybe this is

more than just him finding these sounds 'annoying' he was more relieved than

anything. And I was too. Most of our arguements are over things like this.

Things I dont even realise I'm doing, but he notices right away and gets mad

over it. In 24 years I've never had anyone say my table manners were terrible,

or I'm a loud talker, or how loud and annoying I am when I'm eating. I thought

something was wrong with me.

When we were first seeing eachother I remember him being apprehensive about

going out for dinner. He said he didn't like eating around people, and at home

growing up he took dinner down to his room and ate alone rather than with his

family. It makes sense now as most nights if I make dinner he takes it to

another room and I sit at the table eating alone, which really does hurt my

feelings, but I know if I force him to sit and eat with me he will hate it.

I guess really I just joined this group to see if there is any advice I can get

from other people who have sound sensitivity/misophonia and what I can do for

him to make life easier. I try and eat quietly and if I feel like eating

something crunchy/loud I'll go to another room, but sometimes it's like talking

at my normal volume is too loud or eating as quietly as possible still results

in a glare from him.

He says he even know he's being unreasonable, but he can't help it. Any

suggestions on what you'd appreciate from your family/friends to help?

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