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Science

If You Can't Stand People Fidgeting, You May Have Misokinesia (vice.com) 56

Posted by BeauHD from the more-common-than-you-think dept.
Misophonia is the "hatred of sound," or "sound rage," a condition in which people have intense emotional and physical reactions to trigger noises, often chewing or lip smacking. Misokinesia, on the other hand, is the "hatred of movement." Last week, Todd Handy, a professor of psychology at the University of British Columbia, and his colleagues published the first study to focus solely on misokinesia in Nature Scientific Reports, with first author PhD student Sumeet Jaswall. Motherboard's Shayla Love reports the findings: The paper is mostly focused on determining how common misokinesia might be -- and their findings remarkably resemble the impromptu surveys Handy did on his classes. In a total of over 4,000 people, one-third said they were sensitive to watching others fidget, and that it caused negative emotions like anger, anxiety, and frustration to arise. Arjan Schroder, a postdoctoral researcher at Amsterdam UMC and the first author on the 2013 paper that coined misokinesia, said this prevalence matched what he has seen in his misophonia patient samples. Yet, as Handy's work shows, misokinesia might also be quite common in general populations too.

Handy and his colleagues first asked a group of students whether they ever had "strong negative feelings, thoughts, or physical reactions when seeing or viewing other peoples' fidgeting or repetitive movements," like someone's foot shaking, fingers tapping, or gum chewing. 38% of the students responded yes, and 31% reported having both misokinesia (visual) and misophonia (audio) sensitivity. Then they asked an older, more demographically diverse sample (not students) and found a similar prevalence: 36% of participants reported they had misokinesia sensitivity and 25.5% reported having both misokinesia and misophonia.

It's an intriguing finding that misokinesia and misophonia seem to exist both together and in isolation. On the subreddit for misophonia, one person shared that noises didn't bother them severely but fidgeting did. [...] Handy thinks the next big questions their study poses are how exactly misokinesia is related to misophonia, whether it can help better explain the mechanisms of misophonia, and whether it can potentially lead to coping strategies and treatments.
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If You Can't Stand People Fidgeting, You May Have Misokinesia More

If You Can't Stand People Fidgeting, You May Have Misokinesia

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  • Once you give something an ancient Greek name (Score:3, Insightful)

    by AntisocialNetworker ( 5443888 ) on Saturday September 04, 2021 @05:07AM (#61762281)

    It becomes a medical condition.

    "Hatred of sound" is a life-style position. Misophonia is a condition needing funded research.

    I sometimes wonder at the value of doctors: "Doctor, I've an itchy patch on my arm". "Ah, that's Dermatitis." "Thanks, I feel better already now I know what it is."

    • I sometimes wonder at the value of doctors: "Doctor, I've an itchy patch on my arm". "Ah, that's Dermatitis." "Thanks, I feel better already now I know what it is."

      Sometimes they even tell you where it is!

      You have dermatitis antebrachium.

      good-o.

      • Richard Feynman used to tell of the walks his father took him on, when he pointed out the birds and gave each its Latin name. After a bit of this, he asked Richard how much more he now knew about the birds - and then told him the answer. "Nothing at all".

    • It becomes a medical condition.

      "Hatred of sound" is a life-style position. Misophonia is a condition needing funded research.

      I sometimes wonder at the value of doctors: "Doctor, I've an itchy patch on my arm". "Ah, that's Dermatitis." "Thanks, I feel better already now I know what it is."

      Perhaps. I'm a fidgeter, and it drives my wife nuts. Especially if there is any sound involved. But she hates the movement as well.

      Here's the extent - I'm deaf, and I used to wear headphones in the living room to watch TV. Even with full coverage headsets, she could hear whatever leaked out of the headset, and drove her to distraction.

      So I watch Television/Compute in my office, Door closed, good Bose headphones that really keep the sound in.

      So I can believe the conditions are related.

      Differential

    • > "Thanks, I feel better already now I know what it is."

      Yeah, people do. For real. Almost every time. Even bad things. People would rather have brain cancer than Alzheimer's and vice versa. There's always something worse.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by hey! ( 33014 )

      Whether we should characterize "misophonia" as a mental illness is more of a *practical* question than it is a philosophical one. If it causes serious functional impairment (e.g. job loss, relationship breakdowns, arrests) *that the patient doesn't choose*, clinicians are going to have to treat it. If someone *rationally chooses* to change jobs because his current is too noisy, change partners because his current spouse's habits are annoying, or to go to jail as an act of civil disobedience against noise

    • Long-standing mental issues. If you hate sound and the sound of people that might lead you to become a severe introvert even if you don't want to be. That in turn could lead to depression up to an including suicide.

      I have mild claustrophobia. It's completely silly and pointless but it's also a completely involuntary response that no amount of rational discussion has any effect on. I've also got anxiety attacks at one point where they come on and I can sit there telling myself there's nothing to be anxio
      • I totally agree with you. I'm also sick of all the comments suggesting that people with certain issues or conditions that it's a "lifestyle" choice. It's incredibly insulting. It's like unless you are at the extreme end of a condition you must be making it up or you're just complaining. To me it's the same thing as saying to someone suffering depression, 'just cheer up' or 'get over it'. I work in an extremely noisy office environment. I'm a developer who happens to work around people (management wannabe ty

    • What is the correct medical term for "hatred of morons"?

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by tsa ( 15680 )

      My rabbit has it too. When I play music, certain sounds upset him. And it’s not because of the volume because I never play loud music. Loud noises give me headaches.

    • Iâ(TM)m still trying to wrap my head around restless leg syndrome.

  • Snowflake Weapon? (Score:5, Funny)

    by dcw3 ( 649211 ) on Saturday September 04, 2021 @05:08AM (#61762285) Journal

    "sound rage," a condition in which people have intense emotional and physical reactions to trigger noises"

    So, it works every time someone says Trump?

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by dcw3 ( 649211 )

      Duh...need caffeine before I post. Reading the summary on this one and the title on the Navy weapon.

    • Well, "Trump" is two letters away from "trumpet", a loud and annoying instrument.
      So... yeah.

  • So I guess if you can levitate a certain Asian soup with your mind you have Misokinesis?

    • Miso hungry.

    • kinesis (n)
      : a movement that lacks directional orientation and depends upon the intensity of stimulation

      You're thinking of telekinesis. Misokinesis is when smash your bowl of soup down on the counter and it spills everywhere.

  • We can't stand people fussing around when the rest of the tribe tries to sleep in the cave.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by PPH ( 736903 )

      I was just thinking along this line. Our ancestors needed to keep watch for the sabre-toothed tigers hiding in the brush. So they were alert to any movement or noises that might result in them becoming a meal.

  • Hating people for certain conditions, actions or preferences.

    I am therefore a misanthrope, I hate them all equally, independent of race, gender, sexual preference or idiosyncrasies.

  • tik tik tik tik tik tik flippityflippityflippityflippity wiggle squirm...
    GOOD LORD, WILL YOU PLEASE BE STILL
    Sorry, I don't have a "be still" button

  • If you can't accept normal behavior of people, you could be suffering from disorder Inordinatioidem mania.

    This is a condition characterized by compulsive behavior to detect and assign disorder in normal human behavior. Sometimes it is innate behavior for some people. But there are indications that some groups of medical practitioners in USA join together to create new diseases and disorders so that they can bilk the insurance providers for treatment. It is difficult to ferret them out because the simulated

    • And what if this compulsive behaviour to detect and assign disorder is also normal human behaviour? Think about it. You're a small ape trying to hide from predators and the idiot next to you keeps making noises? Of course your instinct is going to try and quiet this idiot down.

      • And what if this compulsive behaviour to detect and assign disorder is also normal human behaviour?

        Then we would already know it is and there would be no "what if".

        Shorter: it isn't.

      • That's kind of what I was thinking... it's not hating fidgeting which is a disorder. The fidgeting is the abnormal behavior, and humans (like most social animals) dislike abnormal behavior.

        I'm not sure if this study is yet another attempt to declare everything a Condition, or more of the recent trend to excuse abnormal behaviors by classifying reactions to them as abnormal.

      • ah.. You are talking about a disorder known as reflexive-inordinatioidem mania.

        Actually is a subset of normalis mores morbus spectrum of disorders. This normalis mores morbus is the holy grail sought after by every gold digging doctor in USA. Once you get normal behavior declared as moribund, it is just the ticket to bill the insurance companies for anything.

        Curiously many people think insurance companies discourage such things. Not so at all. They operate on cost + percentage basis. If the bill goes u

  • Sounds like HR is going to have more trainings soon.

  • Noise, especially of the rude variety, can interfere with concentration, that makes it an annoyance. There's no reason to give it a Greek name when "annoying" suffices and is universally understood.

  • Not quite non-stop but close. If that bothers you, look elsewhere.

  • What they do is make people uncomfortable especially when they happen at close range and threaten to violate your personal space. Me? I really can't stand the sound of chewing and I thought my case was rare but it's actually quite common, and is called "misophonia".

    I try to stay away from people while they are eating, and if I can't, then I wear headphones to block out the noise.

    I'm sure high aversion to body movements are boosted up even higher by the stresses of the modern world, and the general distrust

  • Wow!!! (Score:3)

    by countach ( 534280 ) on Saturday September 04, 2021 @11:35PM (#61764637)

    If you have a hatred of movement, you may have a hatred of movement!!!! Who knew? Has someone informed the President?

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