Maybe someone has told you that you are chewing too loudly, or that the way you slurp your coffee is obnoxious, or even that the sound of your breathing is driving them up the wall.  

The good news: It might not be you. They might suffer from a little-known condition known as misophonia, and it can be serious. Some with misophonia experience significant impairment from these symptoms, such as not being able to eat in any social situations. 

UNC Greensboro graduate researcher Caitlin Stone, in the Clinical Psychology PhD program explains, “Misophonia is a condition where people feel an intense reaction to sounds.” Often these are noises that others don’t even notice or find innocuous: chewing, breathing, the rattle of metal utensils on a plate, the clicking of a computer keyboard or mouse. 

“Typically, the first sounds you think of are related to food,” Stone says, “like smacking your lips or sipping through a straw. But it can also be things like typing on a computer. A lot of individuals with this condition struggle with ASMR.” 

“There are a lot of different ways this manifests for them,” Stone says. “It can cause anger. It can cause a physiological reaction, like panic. Some have even described it as ‘torture,’ listening to someone eat or breathe in a certain manner.” 

It has a name 

Most people likely know someone who has symptoms of this condition – or perhaps they themselves feel discomfort or even rage at the sound of a person crunching on a potato chip or with a case of the sniffles. Stone says that giving it a name is reassuring to people on both sides of the equation: those who have it and those who chew. 

“Just having a name for it is really huge,” she says. 

“For some people, it’s really validating to finally have a name for it,” she says. “They appreciate that it’s growing, gaining traction, and being recognized. Since I’ve had this opportunity to do this research, so many people have been like, ‘Oh my goodness, I know someone who has this,’ or they have it themselves.” 

Early research and initial discoveries 

After finishing her undergraduate degree in psychology at Florida State University, Stone worked for Florida’s Department of Children and Families, their version of the division of social services.  

“I started seeing how that early environment sparked change in individuals,” she recalls. After getting her master’s in clinical psychology at Western Carolina University, she worked as a clinical researcher in a Duke University Health System neonatal intensive care unit with micro preemies. “I saw more and more how that early environment shaped who you were and how you interacted with the world.” 

Work with children at the Duke Autism Center brought her to the realm of misophonia. “It married two of my research love interests: sensory and social development.” 

Now, as a doctoral student in Dr. Margaret Fields-Olivieri’s TALK lab at UNCG, she’s looking for behaviors or symptoms in early childhood that might increase one’s risk for misophonia later in life. “Our hope is to find windows where we could implement interventions before misophonia develops.” 

“A grant facilitated Stone’s ability to investigate misophonia at UNCG,” says Dr. Fields-Olivieri. “I will co-advise the project using my expertise in early childhood development and early parent-child interactions. But without the grant, she would not be studying it here at UNCG.” 

Her research involves deep dives into existing data sets and is funded with $50,000 from the Misophonia Research Fund and another $25,000 from an anonymous private donor. 

“Adolescence is the earliest people are typically being classified with this,” she says. “Some hypothesized early indicators of misophonia are anxiety and depression. We know misophonia is not anxiety, but some of those symptoms may look like anxiety.” 

“A lot of the neurological stuff is really interesting to me,” she continues. “It’s not really mapping onto anything we’ve seen before. It’s not as similar to anxiety and ADHD, which have common sensory components, as we would expect. So, it’s a really fun mystery right now.” 

‘Moisten, then chew.’ 

Stone had a high school music teacher who hated the sound of people chewing on anything crunchy.  

“If anyone was eating a bag of chips or anything,” she remembers, “he would tell you: ‘Moisten, then chew.’ It was something we joked about, like if you were going to eat chips near him you had to let it sit on your tongue awhile before you started chewing in his vicinity, because it bothered him that much, and he had no problem telling you.” 

While some misophonic solutions land on the offender – chewing with your mouth closed, trying not to slurp, being more mindful of the other’s issues – treatments for the misophonic among us are leading towards cognitive behavioral therapy and interventions. However, Stone says there is no one-size-fits-all solution. 

“People’s experiences are very different,” she says, explaining that people with misophonia have varying triggers and tolerance levels, so treatments would be different depending on who you’re advising. 

Through her research, she says, she hopes to help those with misophonia find a little peace. “We’re working on treatments so that going to a restaurant or working in an office where someone is tapping on a keyboard is not a daunting idea.” She adds that the rest of us can help in our own ways to alleviate stressors for those who suffer.  

In other words: Moisten, then chew. 

Story by Brian Clarey, University Communications 
Photo illustration by Sean Norona, University Communications