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Comment by dailykoder | Hacker News Reader

>In the last open office I worked in, I could not find headphones that allowed me to focus, not even construction-grade earmuffs; if someone's chewing food within 10 ft, I'll hear it, and that's all I'll hear.

That's interesting. I have the same exact issue and whenever I tell people about it they think I am crazy. I don't have a problem with people chewing food when it's lunch break and we sit in the cafeteria, but man, when I try to focus it kills my brain. Just last week the guy next to me started eating kind of late in the day (where my brain was almost empty). I then tried to cancel it out with headphones, but that just wasn't possible anymore.

And I still don't know how to deal with it. Sometimes I try to take a walk for 5 minutes and it helps, but not always. On some days I get a full mental breakdown because I get angry at myself getting angry on somebody just making noises any normal human being does while eating

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You may have misophonia. It’s not uncommon with misophonia to react with rage to eating noises. My husband cannot tolerate certain sounds, for example a dog lapping water.

I have misophonia too, related to chewing sounds. It actually developed in offices. I don’t really go to offices anymore. But the thing that definitely helped was listening to violent noises: wind storm in the forest, sound of jet engine, etc. Naturespace app for phones have some really high quality recordings. Well, that and psychotherapy. My mental health directly allows me to spend mental resources resisting all these emotions.

My son (11yo) has had this as well for the last 2.5 years. Seeing an Audiologist for treatment.

Can you elaborate a little on "listening to violent noises" approach? When do you do this, for how long? Is it graduated in intensity, like exposure therapy?

Thanks!

It is just listening to noises that would distort other unpleasant sounds in a way that they stop being distinguishable/audible. Not a therapy, just masking them temporarily. I know when the risk of disturbing noises is high, and turn on the noise beforehand, or right after it starts. Like, there is a kindergarten near my house, it is noisy, but predictable. So every day I close the window and turn on headphones during the time children are outside.

The therapy, unrelated to this coping approach, was focused on figuring out why I got sensitive to some noises in the first place during childhood. Very individual, but to give an example, appearance of stepfather in my life, whose eating habits were conflicting with the way I was raised before.

Thanks for taking the time to add these details. Will add to the arsenal of tools. Best of luck!

It really is a kind of existential dread I get when having to contend with this. Thankfully it's rare now that I don't have a job in an office or at all, but when I did, I'd end up with the same solution; I had to leave the office, or ironically, take a breather in the kitchen and hope they were done their meal when I got back.

It consumed my consciousness in a way that literally dropped my productivity to near zero, and I couldn't catch up, and got fired. Thankfully my boss didn't do a damn thing except scold me for being slow, otherwise I'd still be making PDF editing software.

I'd just go to a cafe down the street for a few hours, which reflected poorly on me, but I had no choice. Not only was the coffee laughably better than the shit in the office, but my ability to focus there vs the office was like night and day.

That's why I don't understand how some developers are able to code while listening to music.

For me heavily depends on the music. Just been listening to heavy drum and bass for the past 2 hours and been in absolute hyperfocus. Music is the best for me, should be familiar and not have too many lyrics tho.

Sometimes it's drum and bass, mostly some synthwave/chill beats.

Edit: But the problem here is. If I am already exhausted and got distracted by those noises, then getting into focus with just music often does not work. I do have adhd and it could be that misophonia is playing into it too. Still trying to figure out my best work environment, but it's hard

I'd echo exactly everything in this comment.

I feel like Concerta marginally helps with this, but it's tough to remember the last time I've had to test it.

I listen to rap a lot when coding.

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