I was sitting at work trying to stay focused when the person in an ajoining cubicle starting loudly crunching celery or something. They were loud open mouth crunching down onto the celery stalk. There is a rush of high frequency pulse that are the crunching of the celery. That sound also reflects off of the inside of the mouth like when you talk into a tin can, but it changes frequency and tone as the shape of the mouth changes. I didn't see the celery. I can only guess that is what it was.
It was like shooting needle like daggers through my brain and chest. I felt physical pain.
You know, I think since I went cold Turkey and cut out Gluten, Dairy, and a few other things I've been more alert. That's good. On the flips side my senses seem like they've cranked up a notch. I've also never heard any one crunch that loud. That was yesterday.
Today it was wheat crackers. The crunching wasn't so bad as the sound of some one eating wheat crackers with their mouth open. Accompanied by smacking sounds. I tried to endure, but I finally had to rush out of the building and find my hiding place. I sat down and put my head in my hands and rocked back and forth. Even after I was "over it" my chest still hurt. It was like being under attack.
I have a pair of earplugs that I wear when I mow the lawn, the cut the volume of a sound, but I used to wear earplugs when I was a furnace duct cleaner. I could wear the earplugs while the loud machinery was running and still carry on a conversation.
Sound isolating headphone are not covered by insurance.
When I got home it made me appreciate my wife even more. At her loudest she doesn't crunch and smack like that. I can never tell this other person that I'm appalled at his lack of manners. I'm just shocked that an educated individual would still eat with their mouth open.
Don't I sound like an Aspie. I feel it 100% today.
Apr 2, 2007
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Thank you for the CRUNCH story. I now know that I'm not insane and that I'm not making it all up. There are certain people that I cannot be around when they're eating. In fact, I can hear their chewing across the room. Don't feel bad, it's all real and the pain associated with it is real.
ReplyDeleteI can relate. I have a co-worker that open mouth crunches daily....sometimes so loud that it sounds ike she is eating gravel.....or maybe kibbles-n-bits!
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