About

Misophonia, literally "hatred of sound," is a form of decreased sound tolerance. It is characterized by negative experiences resulting only from specific sounds, whether loud or soft, and is often used interchangeably with the term Selective Sound Sensitivity. The term was coined by American neuroscientists Pawel Jastreboff and Margaret Jastreboff.

Symptoms

People who have misophonia are most commonly annoyed, or even enraged, by such ordinary sounds as other people eating, breathing, sniffing, or coughing; certain consonants; or repetitive sounds. People with misophonia may be diagnosed with mood or anxiety disorders as well as obsessive-compulsive disorder. Though a few sufferers are bothered by sounds they make themselves, most are not.  The reactions are completely involuntary. People who have misophonia may also be annoyed by other people's repetitive movements, such as leg-tapping, nail-biting, the rising and falling of the belly, and typing.  Sensitivity to these sounds tends to be exacerbated by stress, hunger, or fatigue. The onset of the symptoms appears to have a characteristic pattern, often in childhood just prior to or during puberty. Often there is a single initial trigger (such as a parent's or sibling's noises), after which the triggers expand over time to include both auditory or visual elements. It is speculated that there is a genetic basis for this disorder as the etiological data supports a similar pattern of emergence, but this remains to be determined.1

• 1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Misophonia#Symptoms