People Who Are Irritated By Sounds of Chewing and Slurping Are Likely To Be Creative Geniuses

Studies Show That People Who Are Irritated By the Sounds of Chewing and Slurping Are More Likely To Be Creative Geniuses

Do you have to get up and leave - or say something (usually derogatory or insulting) when others are chomping on their gum or slurping over something they're eating? Does it go beyond just annoying you into anger or disgust?

You - might be a creative genius!

This reaction is an anxiety disorder called misophonia, defined by Web MD as “a disorder in which certain sounds trigger emotional or physiological responses that some might perceive as unreasonable given the circumstance.” [1] The most common sounds include chewing, slurping, nail-clipping, nails on a chalkboard, snoring, sniffing, crunching, tapping, joint-cracking, tongue-clicking, and dragging metal across a surface.

It seems you're in pretty good company if this happens to you your 'phobia' as many famous 'intallects' went to extremes to deal with their misophonia. Proust even wore earplugs to block out all sounds.

No cure - but it can be managed with sound therapy...and of course pharmaceuticals.

Another way to manage misophonia is the administration of medications such as Lyrica (Pregabalin) and Klonopin (Clonazepam). Most health care providers would not recommend the use of these anti-epileptic and anticonvulsant medications to treat misophonia.

I'll go with the earplugs.

Happy New Year

a reply to: silo13

My father used to like his eggs cooked extra soft so that he could mix them up with whatever else he had on his plate. Then he would eat them and slurrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrp them and drive me crazy. He also would savor his food by sloshing it around in his mouth with his mouth open so as to let more air in so the fragrance would come out and fill his nose.

And yes, I am a creative genius. Mostly I think because his eating forced me to be creative in trying to figure out how to tell him to close his fricking mouth when he ate.

It doesn't bother me how people eat or how much noise they make when they eat. Some people are yumming constantly when they take a bite, no problem with people like that either. Now, the five second rule, I am not in agreement with that, not unless you wash what hits the floor.

Blimey! I must be an ultra creative genius. Or better still. without all that piffle, the people doing those things are just ignorant animals.

a reply to: silo13

My ex had issues with this, but it goes much further- part of the reason he's now the ex!

Try living with getting cussed out for breathing too loud, for a utensil scraping your plate, for your knee popping when you rise from a chair. Imagine what it's like getting yelled at in front of friends or family for clicking a pen to take down a number, for walking too loudly, because he could hear the door latch no matter how softly and carefully I closed it. Visualize living with someone who demands a spotless home but you are never to clean while they are in the house because the sounds of the vacuum, doing the dishes, etc. is unbearable to them.

Imagine living for over 22 years like this. Now imagine the person is already taking the medications you mentioned in the OP and they do absolutely no good at all. That was my life. I walked on eggshells for over 22 years and so did my children- and it sticks with you!

My current husband and I have been living together for nearly 6 years, married for 3 of those. I still go into panic mode if my fork accidentally scrapes my plate and start apologizing. My husbands says "He really "effed" you up, didn't he?"

Yes... yes he did!

🙋🏽‍♀️ Crunching ice, the buzzing sound that comes from fluorescent lights, grease frying in a pan, and cards shuffling can be added to the list.

originally posted by: SouthernGift
🙋🏽‍♀️ Crunching ice, the buzzing sound that comes from fluorescent lights, grease frying in a pan, and cards shuffling can be added to the list.

That buzzing that comes from fluorescent lights drives me nuts. I don't think most people can hear that because most people never complain about it and look at you strange when you complain about the buzzing from the lights, they swear there is no noise coming from the lights a lot of times.

Those people are the same ones who have selective hearing, only hearing what they want to hear.

or possibly serial killers.

I'm beginning to warm to the idea...

a reply to: silo13

I have actually killed people who have chewed gum with their mouths open.

I had to stop hanging out with some people me and the wife knew if there was any chance food was going to be eaten, because these people had a way of eating that no matter what noise was going on around us I could still hear it and it drove me more nuts than my tinnitus does.

Wasn't there also a study correlating people who feel easily disgusted by others and Naziism ?

originally posted by: rom12345
Wasn't there also a study correlating people who feel easily disgusted by others and Naziism ?

If this was extreme sarcasm I apologize..

What? I am not disgusted by the people, its the sound they make while eating typically its nothing done by choice I think, its more something that just happens, maybe a certain way the body developed and consider it almost an echo of the act of eating. (I dont know just have half a thought trying to pull it together and failing)

Fingernails on cardboard ... OMG! Stop! No more, please ... *whimper*

a reply to: silo13
Is that why my wife uses ear protection when I play my acoustic guitar?
I think it sounds beautiful, myself- and she would agree!
I love that girl.

Super good happy new year to y'all!

eta
hesitate to edit girl to gal> so sue me.

a reply to: Irishhaf

It is unclear that the sound of slurping has anything to do with these creative genius's genius.


There does seem to be some correlation with those who are a 'cut above the rest' expressing feelings of disgust in general.

a reply to: rom12345

There is research to suggest that people who are in the gifted range of IQ can have sensory hypersensitivities which may be where this comes from.

I do top out in the gifted range, and I have some sensory hyper-excitabilities. I was the kid who could not wear certain textures or stand to have tags in my clothing, for example. I have a hyperactive imagination. I was also a very physically active kid, and that can be another sensory excitability. My mother gave up on grooming me and just gave me short haircuts until I was old enough to comb and brush my own hair because I couldn't stand to have my hair pulled on at all -- it hurt my scalp, and I'm still hypersensitive to touch to this day. And that's likely where my problem with fingernails and cardboard, both sound and feel, come from.

For some kids, it's debilitating.

a reply to: rom12345

Those damn Nazis are every where.

Correcting grammar, sometimes spelling, sometimes punctuation.


basterds

a reply to: ketsuko

My pet peeve is yapping dachshunds and lawnmower, but I'm on another level.

I think it’s more of a being highly sensitive to the senses.... the genius thing is always a turn off to discuss. So is nazi stuff, but I digress.

Imagine if you will, a barrier, that most possess, is not fully in tact or has somehow been broken. A barrier that a lot of the effects from lights, sounds, smells, etc. are reflected away by, but for some reason, for some of us, more of it penetrates, and, until we become more self aware of our differences from the norm, we react and respond accordingly, clashing with others sometimes.

The correlation to genius and creativity probably comes from the fact that most have to find innovative ways to deal with their struggle to fit in a world that seems too intense for them, but not everyone else around them. It’s that, or blame themselves for somehow being defective because their senses cause them physiological and psychological pain. They can, sometimes express that with negative emotions and actions, yes, and sometimes the self blame can become outward blame, against society as a whole...but that’s why we should seek to understand rather than judge. 😁


ill probably regret going this deep, but, maybe sometimes we need to. 😉


a reply to: rom12345