Forks on teeth. Lip smacking. Metal on metal. (Don’t worry, there are no sonic examples of triggers in this episode!) Why do some of us haaaate certain noises and other folks cannot comprehend how a sound could be so irritating? Let’s meet in the middle with a professional Misophonologist, clinical psychologist, and Oxford University research fellow Dr. Jane Gregory. Dr. Gregory not only has misophonia, but has propelled research and public awareness of the condition. We lob so many questions to learn: what it feels like to have it, how many people experience it, the most common sounds that trigger it, what your brain thinks is happening, why certain people or situations may be worse than others, how to be helpful to people with misophonia, headphones, earplugs, exposure therapies, cognitive behavior therapy, experimenting on oneself, age and misophonia, and where zombies fit into it.

Listen via Apple, Spotify, iHeartRadio, Podbay, Podcast Addict, or wherever you listen to podcasts.

Visit Dr. Jane Gregory’s website and follow her on Instagram and X

Get her book, Sounds Like Misophonia: How to Stop Small Noises from Causing Extreme Reactions on Bookshop.org or Amazon

Read her papers on ResearchGate

A donation went to soQuiet

2024 #WorldLizardDay Programming with Dr. Earyn McGee

Links to things we discussed:

Hyperacusis – first journal reference

Component of Decreased Sound Tolerance: Hyperacusis, Misophonia, Phonophobia. ITHS News Letter 2 (Summer 2001: )

Public awareness of Misophonia in U.S. adults: a Population-based study

Examining emotional functioning in misophonia: the role of affective instability and difficulties with emotion regulation

The neurophysiological approach to misophonia: Theory and treatment