I sometimes quiver at the crunch of the potato chip and convulse at the slurp of the ramen—and please don’t get me started on my Dad savoring his blueberry pie with excruciatingly slow bites. What some may consider everyday noises make me repulsed or even angry. Same with my mom and my sister—and, it turns out, Little House on the Prairie star Melissa Gilbert, who spoke out this week about having misophonia, the neurological disorder we all have, along with an estimated 15% of adults.
“I sobbed when I found out that it had a name and I wasn’t just a bad person,” Gilbert, 60, told People in an exclusive interview this week. Below, more about the disorder that prompts intense emotional reactions to very specific noises. What is Misophonia? People with misophonia , according to the Cleveland Clinic , are triggered, feeling intense and hard-to-control “anger, anxiety, or disgust” when listening to certain sounds—either a couple of specific sounds, such as a person chewing or water dripping from a tap, or a range of noises, from chewing and heavy breathing to the click of a pen and the ticks of a clock.
While misophonia doesn’t have official recognition as a disorder in the the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders ( DSM-5 ), experts still recognize it and have a formal consensus definition for purposes of research, diagnosis, and treatment. The symptoms of the disorder are likened to the fight-or-flight response to danger and can feel like some.