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The New York Times in the United Kingdom once did such a statistic as "the most irritating sounds", and the top 5 polls were the sound of soup, chewing gum, sucking, cutting fingernails, and sometimes squeezing from joint movement.
Although these sounds are uncomfortable for some people, for example, for the chef, he will feel that the sound of eating and swallowing is an appreciation for his cooking skills, and will not exclude hearing such sounds, so for some sounds are different from person to person.
But there is a group of people who are extremely repulsive and tormented by this sound, and which is not only an aversion, but also rises to the level of a mental illness, which is what we are going to introduce today (Misophonia).
For example, the Daily Mail in the United Kingdom once reported on a woman, Feiswerson, who recounted some of her own experiences: she was in college, and sometimes heard the sound of a pen tapping from the classroom during class, which would seriously interrupt his study.
In addition, she is also very sensitive to the sound of others chewing food and purring, which is beyond the understanding of others.
But for himself, this strange sensitivity seriously affected her life, even if she tried to stay away from these sounds as much as possible, but still inevitably affected, resulting in very low mood, strong anxiety, and even the need to take antidepressant drugs to combat these negative emotions.
Just like this lady, those with phonophobia will have an intolerable sense of fear about a certain sound. But this fear is not easy to control itself, and it arises quickly.
Some people also have physiological reactions such as sweating, involuntary trembling, and rapid heartbeat. And most of these sounds are related to the human body, such as the sound of chewing things, the sound of fingers tapping things, and the sound of purring and footsteps.
For the abnormalities caused by patients with phosombia, some people speculate whether there is a problem with the patient's hearing, resulting in external sounds being infinitely amplified, resulting in fear and discomfort.
But some recent studies have found that the essence of the symptom is that the brain has abnormal activity in certain brain regions when processing sound, which ultimately leads to problems in the process of integrating these sensory emotions and other processes.
For example, in some studies of biological brain mechanisms, experimenters have found that this condition may be related to abnormal nerve signals or functional connections in the anterior cingulate cortex and insular cortex area of the brain through mronosomarography of the patient's brain.
These areas are mainly related to the person's receptors and the parts that process emotions. Unfortunately, at present, at the neurological level, there is a temporary lack of a better treatment plan.
Some scholars have tried to deal with problems such as phonophobia from the level of psychological intervention. For example, the association theory, based on the principle of behaviorism, associates scenes that may produce fear with pleasant stimuli, and when such pleasurable information is presented several times, it may reduce the patient's fear of the unpleasant sound.
Specifically, if the patient hates the sound of chewing, then let him enjoy the good visual and taste experience brought by delicious food while listening to this sound, so that the delicious pleasure will reduce the fear caused by this chewing sound, thus establishing a more comfortable connection.
On the other hand, external stimuli can also be reduced, such as if the patient is very afraid of hearing some sounds from others, then he can bring headphones to immerse himself in comfortable music without hearing outside sounds, so as to stay away from the source of fear.
Although these practices do not have a significant therapeutic effect at the neurological level, they can still reduce the patient's fear to a certain extent, so as to better return to normal life.
Similarly, if the patient is afraid of hearing snoring, they can also try to have an independent space to rest and stay away from these external stimuli.
In this way, the effect of these sounds can be eliminated from the root, thereby reducing the frequency of fear.
This enlightens us that if you meet someone in your life who is particularly sensitive to sound, he may not really be eventful, deliberately looking for fault, nor will he be rebellious or fussy, and these voices may indeed make him have a strong emotional and physical reaction.
Such people may choose to express their dislike of these voices directly, but this may trigger interpersonal tension; it may also be that they try to stay in a quieter environment and minimize the impact of external stimuli on them.
No matter what way we use as others, we must understand the fear of such people for certain voices and respect them.
- The End -
Author | Tommy
Edit | Rain
The First Psychological Writing Group | A group of young people who like to look up at the stars
参考资料：Bruk, A., Scholl, S. G., & Bless, H. (2018). Beautiful mess effect: Self–other differences in evaluation of showing vulnerability. Journal of personality and social psychology, 115(2), 192-205
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