hate seeing and hearing people eating

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I really hate this too - my parents had the idea that a family tea AND breakfast was a wholesome idea. Unfortunately, my father's table manners were pretty terrible. He would talk with his mouth full, spit little bits of food about, chew with his mouth open, get food stuck around his mouth . . . Breakfast was the worst because he would almost always have porridge, which makes me nauseous at the best of times, let alone when I can see it being chewed and spat out in globs.

Thinking about it, nearly of the appalling family arguments (invariably involving my father and I) began at the tea-table.

Interesting.

I have always hated eating and hearing mastication.

I hate hearing myself eat

I hate hearing others eat, to the point where i have left the room.

My mother has tried to help me, because when I started going through hormone chaos, the sensory issues became worse, to the point where I would shake and tears would run down my face, while forcing myslef to sit at the table and eat with everyone else.

She would come over to my house and cook, and then light candles outside and let me sit alone to eat, but we would not let me leave any food behind. My intense dislike of food nearly landed me in hospital, so I have all these small rituals now to get me in the mood for food and family time. Taking HRT has helped a bit as well as far as food tasting more palatable and now I can cook and eat my own food.

But hearing others eat still sends me batty. AND I NEVER eat with my ear plugs in......terrible.

Mics

What kind of rituals do you have.? I'm interested because you sound similar to me food became more of an issue when I was pregnant and I'm not yet able to prepare my own food again.

Yeah. When it's hearing, it's called 'misophonia'. I have not only problems with eating, but anything involving mouths. If people put their finger on their chin right next to their mouth, when I was a kid I would grab their finger and throw it down as hard as I could. Also certain sounds, like a 'k' when it's made with a little sound instead of a big sound. Or when people talk through their food. Or those gestures people make when they are eating and want to say something. I still can't stand any of this stuff (or lip smacking, ew) and have a really hard time controlling myself when it happens. I think it's closer to OCD than sensory issues, because it's clearly about a topic, rather than a single kind of sensory experience.

People talking through their food is one of the worst noises. I looked up misphonia and it said that it can develop over time so that triggers can be audio and visual. Also said there are diffent types and one was what you describe - sensitivity to certain sounds like 'k'.

Everything we have to do as upkeep of our bodies is disgusting in practice. Put it in our mouth, chew it up, swallow it, acid breaks it up....all disgusting. I have to do it but I've never been free of the whole process. It always freaked me out, even before I knew the whole process. Extra disgusted with teeth..food in other people's mouth..more than one type of food in my stomach at a time. It sounds all ocd but really it is the actual process and actions associated with it I find sickening. I like what my body can do when it is a good working machine, I like to test it and push it. But the whole upkeep, maintenance, functions are all disgusting. I don't think we should eat anything except little bits of things, never mix. Thinking too much about it makes me sick let alone the noises or weird habits associated with it...licking greasy fingers, chewing, swallowing, a tiny piece of food in a beard... ugggg

Last edited by alone on 21 Jul 2010, 11:57 am, edited 2 times in total.

I don't care at all but I'm posting in this thread to share with you some curious detail on some primitive tribe I read about once - the members of it believe that eating in public is shameful as hell so they hide in their huts while doing it but on the other hand, pooping in public is perfectly normal and you don't need to hide with doing it at all

People smacking and making noises while eating is one of my absolute worst pet peeves ever. I also hate lip smacking, talking with their mouths open, etc. YUCK! I get so angry when I hear these noises.

Unfortunately, my best friend is a gum fanatic and she likes to chomp right next to my ear whenever we hang out... for hours on end. I just don't know how to tell her to stop chomping!

I hate it when people eat noisily - when they slurp or chomp loudly or eat with their mouth open. It really irritates me - it actually seems to hurt me sometimes. But then at the same time I myself love the sensation of eating soup in a sort of slurping way, where I am sort of sucking it from the spoon, and it makes a noise, and that doesn't bother me. But then I try not to do it in public.

watching others eat/drink doesnt bother me the slightest bit, but i hate eating/drinking around people.
i like to relax while i eat, and when others are around i'm always tense, trying to eat quietly, not be messy, etc etc. hate it.
i always take my lunch break as late in the day as possible, to avoid other people being in the lunchroom.

to be perfectly honest, if the room were completely quiet except for one guy chewing with his mouth open obnoxiously, after a few minutes i would definitely say something to him, like "DUDE, really?"

mhmm. alot of the time i just avoid eating altogether until i get home

Oh good.. I can always find a relatable topic within five seconds of scrolling the discussion board.
Yes, with my DAD at least. Ugh.. can't stand it. He's not too bad but the only way I know how to explain how I feel about it is that it's like.. the predictability of him annoys me. Like, I know he's gonna scrape the bowl and hunch over the plate in front of the TV and whatnot. His ravenousness urkes the daylights out of me. Meanwhile I'm probably the same when I eat.

I hate the following eating-noises:

The sound of a spoon being scraped or tapped against a bowl (like when eating cereal or yogurt). My mom does this all the time and it drives me insane. It's REALLY annoying because sometimes she'll be eating a bowl of yogurt and walk into my room.

Both me and my brother HATE the sound of chewing when it's really loud, like when mom's eating something crunchy. And my bro hates me when he hears me chewing. He'll say to us, "Having trouble chewing?"

I also hate the sound of forks and knifes being scraped together or on plates (to 'clean the plate' etc), loud slurping (my dad does that).

I CAN'T STAND the sight of ANYONE holding onto a piece of bread while eating soup or chili, and even worse if they dunk it in what they're eating. I also can't stand the sight of someone using a piece of bread to clean the plate. It's like gawd, obsessive about platecleaning much?

I have had this condition too, ever since I was 12 (now in mid-50s). Some audiologists call it "misophonia" and others call it "selective sound sensitivity syndrome" (or "4S" for short). Dr Marsha Johnson in Oregon has probably spent the most time studying this condition, as far as I can see. This article describes it for audiologists: http://audiology.advanceweb.com/Article/Selective-Sound-Sensitivity-Syndrome.aspx Along with AS, this has been one of my special interests over the last year or so.

I react to slurping, people chewing gum, people eating with their mouths open, whistling, and a variety of other sounds - even when the sounds are soft. About a year ago I found that there are heaps of other people on the Internet who have this same problem, and although not many of them are on the autistic spectrum, it is common for them to have ADHD or OCD or some other anxiety disorder. A number of other people on WP have this condition too, although it is more common for people on the spectrum to react to loud or high-pitched sounds, or just to be overloaded by too many sounds, than to react to soft oral or nasal sounds. Some people have this condition so bad that they cannot live or work with other people at all - they have to work outside (e.g. gardening) and live alone. It often passes down through families, and it might be an inherited neurological condition - no one has done any real research yet. It doesn't appear to be curable by cognitive behaviour therapy or any drugs, although CBT can help with managing the emotions that it causes.

I find wearing an mp3 player and listening to soft continuous music, or to soft "pink noise", helps mask the offensive sounds and make it easier to cope with people eating or drinking nearby. I find this particularly useful when I am traveling to work by train each day. I have had to ask some work colleagues not to bring drinks into my office when they come to see me. Because I work in computer programming, I can always put on headphones so that I can concentrate (everyone at my work does that), so nobody knows that I am really doing it to avoid hearing eating and drinking sounds.

This condition makes it hard to sit at the family dinner table with other people. It may be easier in restaurants, because there is so much background noise, it is a bit like wearing earphones playing pink noise. I have a rule that four talkative people or more at the dinner table is OK, but fewer/quieter people than that is usually a problem.

It really irritates me as well. Sometimes I can ignore it and sometimes not. I think the sounds bother me more than the sight because I can't just block it out. I also really hate people watching me eat, I'm always afraid I look weird because I've been teased about it in the past. My SO thinks it's funny! When we get on the webcam to talk, she'll want to even if I have dinner which I hate . She isn't mean about it, but thinks it's cute.

I also REALLY hate the sound of silverware touching plates or other glass/porcelain! This is one that I just can't ignore, if it happens I jump and cringe and have to cover my ears for a minute or 5 to calm down. It's gotten to the point where I only use plastic in my apartment to prevent such things.


And, Shebakoby, I dislike people cleaning the plate with bread too! lol I think it's the mixing of some many things at once...

You've just listed my 3 most hated sounds! I don't mind people eating nornally - but 'aggressive' eaters who slurp and chomp and cram too much in are so offensive it is painful.

Unfortunately I have a work colleague sat next to me who is a decent person but a totally repulsive eater. It is getting so bad I think I'm going to have to get industrial strength earplugs to block the sound. Either that, or kill him. He slurps his tea, chomps, lip smacks. chews with mouth open. His jaw clicks, and he has an ultra-resonant skull that makes every sound 10 times louder than normal. Seriously, I think there is "Resonant Skull Syndrome" as my sister also has it, when she bites toast, it's about 90 decibels.

And I'm only just getting started on how disgusting this man's eating habits are. Recently, he ate a yoghurt and somehow he was crunching it. As well as making a "slop, slop., slop" kissy noise with his lips on every mouthful (like how babies eat), his jaw clicking away, something was crunching in that yoghurt.

The problem is worsened by the fact that he is a "chain" eater. He brings a bag of fodder in and continually eats and nibbles all day. When he gets a peach out, I always get up and leave as the amount of slurping and slobbering is enough to sink a battleship. Amplified by his resonant skull, every sound distracts me and is so loud I can no longer think.

He also eats super-fast. He rams a whole banana into his mouth in about 3 seconds (I've timed it and it really should be filmed and put on Youtube but would probably be banned for being too obscene) , followed by a minute of gulping, choking, schlomping. Try it yourself and i guarantee you won't do it again! Yet he does it at 11.30 every day. I mentioned to him that he ate a banana in 3 seconds so what was the point of eating if you just cram it in as fast as possible? His reply was a cheerful "oh, people often tell me I eat too fast" and he carried on oblivious, proceeding to eat a packet of ultra-crunchy explosive 110dB crisps, accompanied by tea slurping.

It seems this person devotes his life to irritating noises as he also constantly cracks his knuckles (another sound that gets me to the core), sniffs, coughs, makes blowing sounds like a whale and to cap it all, when his mouth isn't full of food, he talks to himself, reading what's on his screen. It's like his whole reason for living is to make continual NOISE!! !! !! ! (I am a peaceful man, but under such pressure, I have got close to commiting physical violence on him several times)

The thing is that eating is enjoyable, to be savoured, giving life to our organism, other creatures and plants sacrifice their lives. It irritates me when people just don't care and cram as much in as rapidly as possible. The other sound that used to make me feel ill was that of people cleaning their teeth, although I find it less offensive since becoming old.