Loud sneezing or making sounds while eating makes me go mad. What to do in such situations without making anyone feel embarrassed?

Your reactions might be signs of misophonia, which is a condition when everyday life's noises drive you mad. To people who suffer from misophonia, certain sounds like slurping, chewing, tapping and clicking can elicit intense feelings of rage or panic. Here's some tips to deal with the situation without offending anyone: use earplugs, excuse yourself for a minute and leave the room, distract yourself with some pleasing thoughts. In general, try not to overprotect yourself against sound. The more you protect your hearing, the more fear you invoke about these sounds. Systematically expose yourself to the sounds you hate. If things don't improve, you can talk to a medical professional and seek support.

The key is to realize that everyone is different, and to understand and appreciate that. It may be extremely annoying to you, but its important to understand that it may not be something that the other individual can control or has even noticed about themselves. If you are in such a situation, I would take a deep breath and try to take my mind off of the loud sounds and instead channel my energy towards starting a new conversation with the individual, trying to think of something else, or even excusing yourself to go and get refills or go to the bathroom to reorient yourself and take your mind off of the sounds.

I try and keeps my reactions hidden honestly. This is a real challenge for me and I realize the people who are doing it, do not intend to irritate anyone. They are just in the moment and unaware they are loud. I will usually find a way to make a joke about the sneeze, and say “Bless you!” I try to politely leave the room with the loud eating scenario. I also set my work space up so that I’m not next to a co-worker who might like to eat lunch in their work space. Again, politely excusing myself, or remembering an errand I need to suddenly do, helps calm my nerves, and I don’t up saying something I’ll regret later.

You excuse yourself in the politest possible manner and or pretend to get a very important phone call, either way walk away from the situation as possible. If however you can’t, try to drown the sounds by some conversation by those around you. Other then that, I would say there’s not much you can do. If worst comes to worse, you could always try to avoid that person altogether but that might be challenging, especially if they suspect that you are mad at them. In that case, you’d just have to approach them and say hey, you sneeze too loud or you chew too loud and it’ll just make things awkward and embarrassing.

Although it doesn't make me mad, i infer from your question that you want to avoid this without causing the culprit to feel how much you dislike this... apart from excusing yourself and leave the table, maybe you can 'realize' (don't want to say 'lie') that you have been diagnosed with a certain rare neurosis that makes you hypersensitive to otherwise normal human sounds that stems from your early childhood. then ask someone next to the sneezer or slurper and ask them to be a bit more quiet. if you do it believably, the slurper will feel that he is not unreasonably noisy while medicalizing your otherwise 'unreasonable peculiarities'.

Firstly, it is great that you were able to recognise the trigger that causes your emotions to heighten. There are a few things you could do in this situation; move away from the person who is exhibiting those characteristics, though this is more realistic for those making sounds when they're eating versus loud sneezing. People are often receptive to the sensitivities of other people around them, so gently letting them know that you would prefer if they tried to avoid sneezing loudly or making sounds while eating around you may prove to be the better option, especially if you have a relationship with them. It is important to remember not to put the risk of someone bing embarrassed over your discomfort, especially when it is harmful to your mental health.

I used to suffer the exact same issue. It can be very tough hearing someone chew loudly, snoring, or other types of noises. We must continue to realize they may not be doing this to simply annoy you. Maybe they don't realize it annoys you or it's simply out of your control. E.g. we can't control snoring. Some people can't control eating with their mouths open due to nasal issues, etc. We each have our own unique annoyances. We have to learn to accept each other as they come and respect differences. If people are doing it to annoy you and there is proof of that, ask them to politely stop.

Most of the time these are things that people either can't control or don't realise that what they are doing can be irritating for some others. If this is something that is really bothering you, the simple thing to do would be to remove yourself from the situation without making a scene. you can always excuse yourself and take a break on the restroom/outside the room,take a breath and just try calming your thoughts. You could be dealing with misophonia, which is a reaction to regular noises. Probably working on a way to tune it out would be best without embarrassing anyone and short of seeing a therapist.

I'm sorry that you're experiencing this, but it's sweet to see that you're reaching out for support and to minimize the chance of embarrassing anyone. It may be worth it for you to explore some calming techniques for selective sound sensitivity otherwise (and scientifically) known as misophonia! Individuals with misophonia often report they are triggered by oral sounds. This is not a diagnosis, simply a likening to triggers: by likening and finding ways to help misophonia, you may be able to find some supports for yourself as well! Some recommended ways to feel relief from being frustrated by these noises are listening to music in the background to lessen the intensity of the noise. Best of luck!

My biggest recommendation would be to get a pair of noise cancelling headphones and to make sure you communicate to those around you about the sounds that make you uncomfortable. If needed, in situations where there are eating sounds, you could also ask to step away for a moment. I think communication is key in these situations! To make your friends feel less embarrassed about their chewing/sneezing when you do step away, it would probably be helpful to let them know that your discomfort without isn't because you find it weird or gross but because the sound is unpleasant to you. I hope this helps!