People who have misophonia are most commonly annoyed, or even enraged, by such ordinary sounds as other people eating, breathing, sniffing, or coughing; certain consonants; or repetitive sounds.
[6][7] People with misophonia may be diagnosed with mood or anxiety disorders as well as
obsessive-compulsive disorder. Though a few sufferers are bothered by sounds they make themselves, most are not.
[7] The reactions are completely
involuntary.
People who have misophonia may also be annoyed by other people's repetitive movements, such as leg-tapping, nail-biting, the rising and falling of the belly, and typing.
[8]
Sensitivity to these sounds tends to be exacerbated by anger, stress, hunger, sadness, or fatigue.
The onset of the symptoms appears to have a characteristic pattern, often in childhood just prior to or during puberty. Often there is a single initial trigger (such as a parent's or sibling's noises), after which the triggers expand over time to include both auditory or visual elements. It is speculated that there is a genetic basis for this disorder as the etiological data supports a similar pattern of emergence, but this remains to be determined.