Hello everyone

[Guest guest]

Greetings, all -

I can hardly believe that this - aversion is putting it mildly - to mouth sounds

has a NAME! And that I'm not alone in this!

I have hated the sounds of chewing, most notably gum chewing, since childhood.

Listening to my younger brother chew gum, even at a very young age, would fill

me with overwhelming feelings of disgust, contempt, and rage.

Fortunately for me, I can tolerate civilized eating sounds, though I can't stand

it when people chew with their mouths open or eat noisily. My parents harped on

" Chew with your mouth closed " so mealtimes at our house growing up weren't too

awful.

But gum chewing, cracking, smacking, and popping - oh, my God, I want to KILL

when I hear those sounds. I am now, at my job, stuck sitting next to a woman who

does those things with gum. When she isn't chewing gum, she is sucking her teeth

and making LOUD noises that I can't even describe. Twice I've become so upset

that I've actually asked her, " What are you EATING? " to try to let her know that

she's being noisy. One response was " Oh, I have food stuck around my teeth " ,

another was " Oh, my gum " which she DID spit out, with apologies - but she

continues to chew (and pop, and smack) every day. It is gross, rude, and driving

me crazy. I have a physical response to this that is very unpleasant.

I got a pair of noise dampening earbuds at Costco, and they work great

especially if I'm playing white or pink noise from my PC through them; but

sometimes the loud " skitch " noise she makes when sucking her teeth even comes

through that. And, the earbuds hurt my ear canals after a while. Also, I feel

isolated and vulnerable when wearing them, as they dampen sounds so well that I

can't hear someone approaching my desk - that's unnerving.

Other noises I can't stand include, but are not limited to:

Repetitive throat clearing - God, that is nasty.

The clacking of heels. I hate that sound! The sound made by flip-flops, as

someone previously mentioned. The sound made when people don't pick up their

feet when they walk.

Thumping bass.

Snoring or noisy breathing.

Repetitive coughing.

Eating noises if I am not eating as well - smacking lips drive me up the wall.

Crunching I can generally tolerate.

TV or music noise that I haven't chosen.

Strangely, I am not bothered by machine noises, generally. I can have a loud

server running in my office and it doesn't bother me a bit. People will ask " how

can you stand that? " and are surprised when I reply that I like it, because it

drowns out other sounds (human generated!) that I find intolerable.

Mouth noises are the WORST, by far. I think that gum chewing in the workplace

should be banned, period. Again, strangely, the sounds of one of my cats or dogs

licking itself don't bother me at all.

Thank you so much for letting me join this group and thank you for letting me

vent!! People who don't suffer this just don't understand.

Like the rest of you, I get really tired of hearing " Get over it " , " Just tune it

out " , " Why does that bother you? " " What's wrong with you? " " Just deal with it. "

How about the gum poppers, noisy eaters and other such individuals learn to be a

little more considerate, instead?