This Morning: Ruth Langsford’s blood ‘boils’ at caller's lazy husband
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The pair who have been together for over two decades have become much loved presenters on British telly, their on-air bickering acting as a realistic and relatable insight into working with your spouse. For Ruth, who suffers with rare condition known as misophonia, this bickering goes far beyond the television screen; it develops into anger and swearing when she gets irritated by Eamonn’s chewing, slurping or even when he breathes too close to her.
Ruth explained one morning on the popular daytime show: “If someone’s breathing heavily near me – I think what just happens is I just tune in. Certain noises – if someone was clicking a pen over there, everything else around me becomes kind of dulled and all I can hear is that.
“Even if it’s a stranger, sometimes I have to go, ‘Excuse me, can you stop that?!’ And then I blurt it out and I’m really embarrassed.”
“You don’t say sorry,” interrupted Eamonn.
Ruth remarked: “Not to you.”
Eamonn replied: “You just swear.”
The condition, which causes individuals to experience intense anger and disgust when confronted with particular sounds, is not yet professionally recognised in medicine as psychologist Dr Florian Vogt explained on the show.
He said: “It does not yet have a medical label to it yet and it does not correlate with other recognised medical conditions [to do with] hearing or psychological [factors].
“So, at some point, it might be recognised as its own condition.”
Again talking about the condition on the show earlier this year, Eamonn revealed: “Sunday breakfast turns up and it’s a massive row and then we storm off and we don’t talk for the rest of the day, because of [Ruth’s] sensitivity.”
This sort of response is normal for an individual who suffers with misophonia. As WebMD explains, the disorder – which is sometimes known as sound sensitivity syndrome – triggers emotional or physiological responses.
Reactions can range from anger and annoyance to panic, anxiety and fleeing.
These triggers go beyond eating or drinking, with some people being driven crazy by repetitive motions like finger tapping, car windshield wipers or foot wiggling.
Kelly Osbourne, daughter of Ozzy and Sharon Osbourne, has also spoken out about suffering with the condition and the strains it puts on her life.
She said on a Loose Women panel: “I’ve walked up to people I don’t know and ripped the gum out of their mouth. It makes my knees buckle and makes me sweat. It drives me nuts.”
The onset of the condition also remains a medical mystery.
Most people start to report symptoms when they are between the ages of nine and 13.
Researchers believe that it may be caused by individuals already having an issue with how their brain filters sound and the repetition of some noises worsens these auditory processing problems, making it unbearable to listen to.
Individuals have to learn to manage and live with the condition in their everyday lives due to the lack of treatment available.
However, some clinics in the US are trialling treatments such as auditory distraction, which uses headphones or white noise to improve functioning.
Some therapies such as cognitive behavioural therapy and talking therapy which is used to treat depression, anxiety and OCD have also been tried with varying levels of success in individuals.
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