{"id":167838,"date":"2025-06-08T14:53:09","date_gmt":"2025-06-08T14:53:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/167838\/"},"modified":"2025-06-08T14:53:09","modified_gmt":"2025-06-08T14:53:09","slug":"theres-a-genetic-reason-you-cant-stand-loud-breathing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/167838\/","title":{"rendered":"There\u2019s a Genetic Reason You Can\u2019t Stand Loud Breathing"},"content":{"rendered":"

When I found out there was a word for it\u2014misophonia<\/a>\u2014I nearly cried. <\/p>\n

For years, I thought I was just irrational, mean, or broken. Certain sounds would flip a switch in my brain: chewing, slurping, heavy breathing, pen clicking, someone\u2019s relentless foot tap. I wouldn\u2019t just get annoyed\u2014I\u2019d feel trapped, enraged, like I needed to scream, escape the room, or crawl out of my skin. Everyone else acted like nothing was happening. What the hell was wrong with me? I felt like a total weirdo.<\/p>\n

Turns out I\u2019m not. And according to a new study, my DNA might be part of the reason why.<\/p>\n

What Is Misophonia?<\/p>\n

In research published in Frontiers in Neuroscience<\/a>, scientists from the University of Amsterdam found that misophonia has genetic links to anxiety, depression, and even PTSD. Psychiatrist Dirk Smit and his team analyzed data from more than 23,000 individuals across massive databases like UK Biobank and 23andMe. <\/p>\n

People who self-identified as having misophonia showed increased genetic overlap with mood disorders and tinnitus\u2014a condition already known for its ties to mental distress.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere was also an overlap with PTSD genetics,\u201d Smit told PsyPost<\/a>. \u201cThat could point to a shared neurobiological system that affects both\u2026and suggest that treatment techniques used for PTSD could also be used for misophonia.\u201d<\/p>\n

That doesn\u2019t mean misophonia is PTSD or depression, but the connection is there. Shared risk factors. Shared emotional circuitry. Which makes a lot of sense when you realize misophonia reactions go way beyond \u201cugh, that\u2019s annoying.\u201d For many people, including myself, a triggering sound can take over their entire nervous system.<\/p>\n

Smit\u2019s team also noted strong links between misophonia and personality traits like guilt, worry, loneliness, and neuroticism\u2014suggesting that the condition might have more to do with internalized distress than external rage. \u201cIt has been argued\u2026that misophonia is based on the feelings of guilt about the evoked irritation and anger,\u201d the researchers wrote.<\/p>\n

One of the more surprising findings came from the data on autism. Despite being more sensitive to sensory input, people with autism were actually less likely to report misophonia. This suggests that misophonia operates independently\u2014driven less by sound sensitivity alone and more by emotional conditioning and individual personality traits.<\/p>\n

Roughly 18.4% of people in the UK experience strong misophonic reactions, yet most have no idea what misophonia even is. Without a name for it, they\u2019re left thinking their responses are strange or personal failings. Finding out it\u2019s real is the first relief. Learning it might be genetic is the second.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When I found out there was a word for it\u2014misophonia\u2014I nearly cried. For years, I thought I was…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":167839,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3846],"tags":[267,70,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-167838","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-genetics","8":"tag-genetics","9":"tag-science","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114648318342855444","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/167838","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=167838"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/167838\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/167839"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=167838"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=167838"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=167838"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}