Decoding Misophonia: A Psychologist's Guide To Knowing The Symptoms

Misophonia, the discomfort triggered by certain sounds, might be the culprit if you experience spine-tingling reactions to life's everyday sounds.

By Mark Travers, Ph.D. | October 26, 2023

Have you ever heard a certain sound and become overwhelmed with anger, anxiety or disgust? These might include sounds like loud chewing, heavy breathing, crying babies, lip smacking or someone clicking a pen. If you’ve ever felt emotionally or physically affected after hearing sounds like those, or other unpleasant sounds, then you might be dealing with “misophonia”—a condition psychologists are now able to measure.

The term is derived from the Greek words “misos,” meaning hate, and “phónè,” meaning voice, and coming together to form, “the hate of sound.” From a clinical perspective, misophonia is described as a condition involving psychological and physiological reactions and sensations in response to certain triggering sounds.

How Misophonia Affects The Brain

In a report published in Current Biology, researchers highlighted that misophonia affects the anterior insula, which is the part of the brain responsible for controlling functions related to processing emotions, empathy, decision-making, bodily sensations and awareness. The researchers break down these effects into four key aspects:

Exaggerated response. When people with misophonia hear certain sounds that trigger their condition, the anterior insula reacts strongly. This means that their brain responds more intensely to these specific sounds compared to other people.
Abnormal connectivity. In a misophonic brain, the anterior insula connects with other parts of the brain differently. It’s as if the “wires” in the brain that should connect different areas are not.
Heightened autonomic responses. Autonomic responses refer to automatic bodily reactions like increased heart rate or sweating. In misophonia, the anterior insula is responsible for making these automatic responses stronger or more heightened when exposed to trigger sounds.
Altered interoception. Interoception is the ability to sense what’s happening inside your body, like feeling your heart beating or being aware of your breathing. In misophonia, this internal sensing is altered, such that people with misophonia might feel physical sensations more intensely when they hear trigger sounds.

Researchers also argue that the context of triggering sounds can worsen the experience of misophonia. In a study published in Frontiers in Psychology, the authors explain that people with misophonia are more bothered by unpleasant sounds made by close friends and family than they are by sounds made by animals or babies. This adds an interesting layer to the understanding of misophonia, revealing how personal connections and context can heighten the annoyance factor.

These insights into the neurological and contextual factors of misophonia can help us decipher why our bodies sometimes react strangely to unpleasant sounds. To put these processes into perspective, imagine Sarah, who is on a dinner date:

It’s a pleasant evening, both Sarah and her date are enjoying a homemade meal. However, as soon as her date begins to chew their food, Sarah’s body and mind go into a state of turmoil. The sound of chewing seems to magnify with every bite, and her heart begins racing as anger wells up inside her. After holding back for what seems like an eternity, she abruptly tells her date to cut it out.

Sarah’s experience wasn’t just about annoyance—it was about her emotions, deep and visceral, being set off by an abnormal or unconventional trigger. It wasn’t just her mind that was at odds with the noises, it was her brain’s anterior insula, reacting with exaggerated intensity, causing her to feel emotions she cannot easily control.

The MisoQuest: How To Tell If You Have Misophonia

If you’ve ever experienced such a visceral response to certain sounds, you now have the opportunity to gauge whether you might be grappling with misophonia. Since it has only recently been investigated by psychologists, there has been a historical lack of understanding and research about misophonia and its symptoms.

In light of this, researchers conducted a study in which they developed a 14-item questionnaire—the MisoQuest—that can be used to measure and assess misophonia. To complete the MisoQuest, responses are given on a scale from “strongly disagree” to “strongly agree.” The higher the level of agreement to the 14 questions, the more likely you are to suffer from misophonia.

I find some sounds made by the human body unbearable.
Some unpleasant sounds make me instantly angry.
I start feeling anger the moment I see a thing/animal/person that might make an unpleasant sound at any time.
When I hear unpleasant sounds, I start sensing emotions in my body (e.g., I sweat, feel pain, feel pressure, my muscles tense).
Unpleasant sounds make me feel overwhelmed.
I become anxious at the mere thought of an unpleasant sound.
Some sounds bother me so much that I have difficulty controlling my emotions.
I put a lot of effort into controlling emotions when I hear an unpleasant sound.
I believe that my reactions to sounds are exaggerated but I can’t get rid of them.
If I can, I avoid meeting with certain people because of the sounds they make.
I feel that my mental state worsens if I cannot leave a place where there’s an unpleasant sound.
I often think about how to drown out unpleasant sounds.
I am scared that unpleasant sounds may impact my future.
When meeting with other people, I am sometimes irritated because of unpleasant sounds that are present.

Conclusion

Sounds, whether harmonious or jarring, play an integral role in our daily lives. For some, certain sounds can elicit powerful emotional and physiological responses. By shedding light on misophonia and its effects on the brain, we gain a deeper understanding of how sounds can profoundly influence our mental landscape. Awareness, as they say, is the first step toward understanding.

If you’d like to take the MisoQuest and receive your results, you can follow this link: The Misophonia Test