I have misophonia…an extreme aversion to particular sounds.  I happen to be extremely sensitive to it.

It is not a fake thing.

There are several noises that set me off…in particular people breathing heavily, snoring, eating, gulping loudly, and people making any sort of sound with their mouth…chewing, whistling, and smacking.

It’s not just an annoyance.  It’s an extreme aversion.  My blood pressure goes up and my whole demeanor often changes.  I do my best to manage it but it can be torturous.

When locked somewhere with someone snoring that I cannot control I have slept outside or stayed up all night doing 1000+ sit ups.

In addition to trigger noises I am often overwhelmed in public if there are too many conversations at once.  The chatter over a movie or television show causes my head to spin with sensory overload.  The overwhelming firing of my neurons gives me a type of anxiety, not quite a panic attack but I will often do what I need to to escape the situation.

This has nothing to do with horses, does it?

Here I am telling you something so very personal and what for?

I find it amusing that while human noises repulse me the same is not true for animals (except that annoying “dog persistently licking  itself” sound).

In fact, the sound of horses happily munching away actually fills me with joy and amusement.  Take this sloppy guy for instance.  To avoid choke and encourage hydration I wet the three amigos’ breakfasts.  Vai Via eats his morning “slop” eagerly and simultaneously gives himself a facial and gets his food all over the place.  As he eats he smacks and chews quite intently.  It brings a smile to my face.

Humans, I can’t deal with.

But horses, chew on, kids!