A Scottish woman suffering from a rare condition called misophonia is so annoyed by the sound of other people’s breathing that she once asked doctors to surgically make her deaf.

Misophonia is described as a strong dislike or hatred of specific sounds, which triggers strong  emotional or physiological responses that would be considered unreasonable by most people. Also known as “sound sensitivity syndrome”, this condition can trigger all kinds of reactions, from anger to panic, or the need to flee and escape the maddening sound. Think of a sound that drives you crazy, multiply it by a factor of 100 and you can get an idea of what experiencing misophonia feels like.

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Imagine hearing someone chewing a piece of bubble gum loudly and being overwhelmed by a feeling of anger, disgust or panic. Sounds like loud chewing or slurping can be hard to put up with for most of us, but for people suffering from a rare condition called misophonia, it’s virtually impossible.

Misophonia, also known as Selective Sound Sensitivity, is usually described as a strong emotional or physiological response to the presence or anticipation of certain sounds that are usually human-generated, like the sound of someone biting into crunchy foods, clicking noises, knuckle cracking, even breathing. While anger is the most common reaction recorded in misphonia sufferers, anxiety and disgust are also possible responses. But these intense emotions are also accompanied by a release of adrenaline which causes symptoms like raised pulse, shakiness, sweating and a raised heart rate. This makes dealing with experiences most of us consider mundane almost impossible for people with misophonia.

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