Hello! My name is Sophie and I have Misophonia.

For those that do not know what Misophonia is, it is when a person hears certain sounds and are triggered or have symptoms just by hearing them. For example hearing people eat, snoring, repetitive sounds, keyboard clicking, coughing etc. Reading in forums of Misophonia there are so many varieties and it affects people in different ways with their everyday life.

At the moment I think writing this blog is going to be one of the only ways I can express how Misophonia affects me and hopefully someone who is knew to Misophonia will find my blog and I can give them a bit of insight about it.... so this is how it started for me and also today I am going to give some quick tips for when you are eating at home with other human beings.😬

I am 25 now and it has only been this year that I have moved away from my parents house (ever) to live with my boyfriend. (Hozzah). Growing up I have always had a problem with my Dad eating, my Brother typing on the laptop and my Mum chewing gum, I didn't really think much of it, just that the sounds were annoying and I wanted them to stop. I would continuously say "Throw the chewing gum out!" "Stop wrecking your keyboard!" "Eat Properly" or just "AHHHH" and walking (fast)  out of the room. I got responses like "You are a noisy eater you can't say anything" or "Yeah well you are always typing and it is annoying". I think I just put it down to puberty at the time as my mood was all over the shop. Over the following years I would spend more time out with friends and travelling, I would be eating at the same time as my family, so even though the Chewing Gum and Laptop noises were still there at some parts of the day, I would just be watching anime mostly or Netflix etc on my laptop with headphones so the sounds didn't register with me as much. I didn't think much of it - and with that I went about my daily business.

Fast-forward to this year (2017) all is going well in our new house, but the food eating is becoming a problem. At the start of living together I would get very emotional and sometimes just cry through the meal and hiding it as best as I could because I know it wasn't my boyfriends fault – he has to eat! Sometimes it made me so off my food I would end up just eating it very slowly and not really tasting it as my mind was so focused on the eating sounds. Then meals progressed to me getting angry and shouting "Eat properly" or I would just walk fast/run to the Kitchen or Bathroom to take deep breaths, in my mind I would think "this gives me time for my boyfriend to eat more of his meal, so maybe he will be finished before I return??". After this happening over and over again me and my boyfriend had a good chat about it and I found if I ate at the same time as he did, that helped a lot – it meant I was listening to my own eating noises so it was cancelling his noises out. Secondly, listening to music or having something on TV helps too, at the moment we are watching Vampire Diaries with our food (😀)it turns in to a distraction, especially if it is something you like watching or listening to, it also hides more of the noises happening that you do not like. Thirdly, do not get to the point you are tired and still have to prepare food and eat it, being tired and having to do all this I find magnifies the eating sounds and makes me more frustrated and then – upset! I found this when my boyfriend would finish at 8 in the evening and because we like to eat together (and also my problem) it meant eating late, so now I make sure there is food ready for when he returns and I have ate a snack beforehand.

Some quick tips when eating with people at home!

1.  Eat at the same time as them, the noises you create should cancel out their own noises.
2. Listen to music or put something on TV while you are eating, do not sit in silence, the TV/Music will be a distraction and also get rid of some of the "dreadful" noises.
3.  Do not eat too late!
4. Talk to the people around you and show them what "Misophonia" is on the internet and that you are not just throwing a tantrum, they will understand eventually and you will find it easier to deal with "eating time".

(Illustration at the top by Liberty Antonia Sadler for Metro.co.uk)