Someone across the table is chewing. It is not loud and nobody else has noticed, but your jaw is tight, your heart is going, and you are furious in a way you know is out of proportion and cannot switch off.
That is what misophonia tends to feel like. The word means “hatred of sound”, and it describes a strong, involuntary reaction to particular everyday sounds, usually small, repetitive ones another person makes. It is not fussiness and it is not a choice.
Here is what it looks like, what the research can and cannot tell you yet, what tends to help, and where Cognitive Pattern Reprogramming fits if you want something structured to use at home.
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What Misophonia Is
Misophonia is a strong emotional and physical reaction to specific sounds, most often chewing, breathing, sniffing, throat-clearing, pen-clicking and typing. The reaction is usually anger, disgust or a sudden urge to get away, and it arrives fast, before there is any chance to reason with it.
It is not about volume. A sound most people never register can be the one that takes over the room for you, and the fact that nobody else noticed is part of what makes it so isolating.
For many people it starts in childhood or the early teens, and it is often put down to being difficult or oversensitive for years before anyone names it. Worth saying plainly: a reaction you did not choose is not a character flaw.
What It Costs Day to Day
The cost is rarely the sound itself. It is everything you rearrange to avoid it.
- Meals get harder. Eating with family or a partner becomes something to get through. Some people start eating at a different time, with the television on, or in another room.
- Work gets louder. Open-plan offices, keyboards, a colleague eating at their desk. Headphones help, and they become one more thing to manage all day.
- Relationships take the hit. People close to you may read the reaction as rudeness or rejection, because from the outside that is what it looks like.
- Guilt piles on top. Being furious about someone breathing is hard to say out loud, so it goes unexplained, and unexplained anger gets read as temper.
Avoidance makes sense in the moment. Over time, though, the list of places and people you steer around can grow, and that shrinking is often the part most worth getting help with.
If the stress of it is wearing you down, or you are feeling low or anxious much of the time, talk to your GP. If you are ever worried about your safety or someone else’s, call 000, or Lifeline on 13 11 14 at any hour.
What the Research Says So Far
Honestly, it is still being worked out. Misophonia has only been studied seriously for a couple of decades, and many of the studies are small.
Some brain imaging studies point to stronger links between areas that process sound and areas involved in emotion and threat, which would fit with how fast and physical the reaction feels. That is a promising line of research, not a settled explanation, and nobody should tell you they have it pinned down.
What is well described is that the reaction is involuntary. That matters, because it is why talking yourself out of it mid-episode so rarely works, and why blaming yourself for it does not help either.
Misophonia is not listed in the DSM-5, so there is no formal diagnostic code for it. Clinicians do use screening tools, including the Misophonia Questionnaire and the Amsterdam Misophonia Scale, and an audiologist can help rule out hyperacusis and tinnitus, which are different things that often get confused with it. If sound sensitivity sits alongside ADHD for you, there is more on misophonia and ADHD in women.
Common Triggers
Triggers are personal, but some turn up again and again:
- Mouth sounds: chewing, crunching, slurping, lip-smacking, swallowing.
- Breathing sounds: sniffing, heavy breathing, snoring, throat-clearing.
- Repetitive sounds: pen-clicking, typing, tapping, a ticking clock, shuffling feet.
- Quiet sounds: whispering, rustling paper or packaging.
- Movement you can see: a bouncing leg or a swinging foot, even with no sound at all.
The reaction usually has more to do with the kind of sound, and often who is making it, than with how loud it is. A simple note of which sounds bother you, where, and how strongly, can help you spot patterns, and it gives a clinician something concrete to work with.
What Tends to Help
None of this makes the sounds go away. It gives you somewhere to stand when they start.
- Cover rather than cancel. A steady background sound, like a fan, rain or instrumental music, tends to work better than silence, because it gives your attention something dull to rest on. Noise-cancelling headphones in silence can leave you listening out for the trigger.
- Leave early, not late. Stepping away at the first flicker is a strategy, not a defeat. It is far easier to head off in the first few seconds than to ride out after several minutes.
- Change the input. Slow breathing with a longer breath out, something cold in your hand, a short walk. Physical redirection often reaches this when arguing with yourself does not.
- Say it once, calmly, to the people who matter. “Some chewing sounds set off a reaction I cannot control. It is not about you, and I am working on it.” Said in advance rather than mid-episode, it saves a lot of hurt.
- Plan one reliably quiet hour. Not a quiet life, one hour: a room, a time of day, a commute with the right sound on.
- Get proper help if it is shaping your life. Cognitive behavioural therapy and graded sound work are the approaches with the most clinical use behind them, and a psychologist can tell you whether either suits you. An audiologist can check your hearing and rule out other causes.
What Is Cognitive Pattern Reprogramming
Cognitive Pattern Reprogramming draws on Clinical Hypnosis, Strategic Psychotherapy and Neuro-Linguistic Programming. Clinical Hypnosis creates a highly focused state of attention, Strategic Psychotherapy identifies and works with unhelpful patterns, and NLP techniques interrupt those patterns and anchor more useful responses. It is delivered as guided audio. You stay aware and in control the whole way through, and it is designed to sit alongside anything else you already use.
In practice it is a 15 to 20 minute session you listen to at a quiet point in the day, not while a trigger is going off. The sessions are aimed at helping people work with automatic patterns and responses associated with difficult trigger situations. How much it helps varies from person to person, and anyone who tells you otherwise about an audio program is overselling it.
It does not diagnose misophonia and it is not a treatment for it. It is designed to work alongside anything else you are doing, whether that is a psychologist, an audiologist or nothing yet, and it does not replace any of them.
The sessions are created by Rob Edmonds, who holds a Diploma of Clinical Hypnosis and Strategic Psychotherapy and is a Neuro-Linguistic Programming Practitioner. You do not need any training. You press play. Do not listen while driving or operating machinery.
This Will Not Suit Everyone
Worth being straight about where this fits.
It tends to suit someone who can sit with headphones on for fifteen minutes at a predictable point in the day, whose reactions follow the ordinary misophonia pattern, and who wants something to use between appointments or while waiting on a referral.
Look elsewhere first if sounds cause pain in your ears, ringing, or a change in your hearing, or if the sensitivity came on suddenly, because that is a GP or audiologist first. Same if your reactions have ever tipped into harming yourself or someone else, or if you are avoiding so much of your life that it has stopped being manageable. And if a voice in your ears is hard to tolerate, audio may simply not be the right fit.
Questions People Ask
What causes misophonia?
The cause of misophonia is not yet known. Some brain imaging studies suggest stronger links between areas that process sound and areas involved in emotion, but the research is early and many of the studies are small. What is well described is that the reaction is involuntary, which means it is not a weakness or a choice.
Is misophonia the same as hyperacusis?
Misophonia and hyperacusis are different. Hyperacusis involves discomfort or pain from sounds at ordinary volumes, while misophonia is a strong emotional reaction to specific sounds, often quiet, repetitive ones. They can occur together, and an audiologist can help tell them apart.
Can misophonia get worse over time?
Misophonia can change over time, and some people find their list of triggers grows, particularly as avoidance increases. That is not inevitable. Coping strategies and professional support help many people manage it, so it is worth getting help early if it is starting to shape your life.
How can I calm down during a misophonia trigger?
During a misophonia trigger, the most useful moves are usually physical: step away early, breathe out slowly for longer than you breathe in, hold something cold, or put on a steady background sound such as a fan or rain. Arguing with yourself in the moment rarely works, because the reaction arrives before thinking does.
Are there medical treatments for misophonia?
There is no medication approved specifically for misophonia. The approaches with the most clinical use behind them are psychological, particularly cognitive behavioural therapy, sometimes combined with sound-based strategies. A GP, psychologist or audiologist can help you work out what fits.
Is misophonia linked to anxiety or OCD?
Studies have found misophonia turning up alongside anxiety, obsessive-compulsive traits and ADHD more often than chance would suggest, though the reasons are not settled. If you live with one of these as well, getting support for it can make the whole load easier to carry, so it is worth mentioning both to your GP.
Is Cognitive Pattern Reprogramming hypnosis?
Yes. Clinical Hypnosis is one of the approaches used within Cognitive Pattern Reprogramming. CPR draws on Clinical Hypnosis, Strategic Psychotherapy and Neuro-Linguistic Programming. Clinical Hypnosis creates a highly focused state in which the therapeutic work takes place. Strategic Psychotherapy is used within that state to identify and work with unhelpful patterns, while NLP techniques are used throughout to interrupt unhelpful responses and reinforce more useful ones. It is delivered as guided audio, and the listener remains aware and able to respond throughout.
Can Cognitive Pattern Reprogramming help with misophonia?
Cognitive Pattern Reprogramming sessions are aimed at helping people work with automatic patterns and responses associated with difficult trigger situations. It is guided audio you listen to at a quiet point in the day, it is designed to sit alongside anything else you already use, and how much it helps varies from one person to the next. It is not a treatment for misophonia and it does not replace a psychologist, an audiologist or other appropriate clinical care.
Can misophonia be cured?
There is no known cure for misophonia. Many people find the reaction becomes more manageable with coping strategies, understanding from the people around them and professional help, and for most the realistic aim is a life less shaped by sound rather than one where the reaction never happens.
If this is something you live with, have a look at the Focus, ADHD and Mental Performance pathway: 15 to 20 minute guided audio sessions designed to sit alongside any other support you have.
