Asked by: Oliver Neal, Oxford
Misophonia is a condition, only recently identified by psychologists, in which people feel angry, irritated and/or disgusted by human-generated sounds, such as chewing, slurping, breathing or tapping. It’s early days, but preliminary studies suggest that cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) – based around learning not to pay attention to the sounds and practising relaxing when hearing them – can be effective.
Promising results have also come from a treatment approach based around acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT), part of which involves practising describing the triggering situation (such as a person eating) to oneself in a factual, non-judgmental way.
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