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Everyone gets annoyed by certain noises at times.
時不時地，每個人都會被某些噪音惹得心煩意亂。
You might wince at the screech of feedback from a microphone or want to scream at the construction worker pummeling a pneumatic drill outside your window.
也許是麥克風傳來的尖銳回授聲，讓你不禁皺起眉頭；又或許是窗外建筑工人使用風鉆發出的聲響，讓你恨不得沖他們大喊。
But for some people, the quietest sounds are the most excruciating.
可對于一部分人而言，最細微的聲音卻能帶來最為強烈的痛苦。
For people with misophonia, every day sounds like slurping, tapping, or sniffing don't just annoy -- they trigger an intense fight-or-flight response.
對于患有恐音癥的人來說，諸如吮吸聲、敲擊聲或者吸鼻子聲這類日常聲音，可不只是讓人厭煩那么簡單，它們能引發強烈的“憤怒或逃避”反應。
The condition, whose name means "hatred of sound" in Greek, hijacks the nervous system, making even the slightest noises feel unbearable.
“恐音癥”一詞在希臘語里的意思是“對聲音的厭惡”，這種病癥會影響神經系統，致使哪怕最輕微的噪音都變得難以忍受。
Scientists estimate that between 5 and 20 percent of adults experience this extreme sensitivity, yet misophonia remains poorly understood.
據科學家估計，5%到20%的成年人存在這種極度敏感的情況，然而，人們對恐音癥的了解依舊十分有限。
"When I was younger, one sound that made me feel the weirdest was that repetitive noise pigeons make," says Jane Gregory, a psychologist at Oxford University and author of the book Sounds Like Misophonia, who has the condition herself.
“我年輕那會兒，有一種聲音讓我感覺特別怪異，就是鴿子發出的那種重復叫聲。”牛津大學的心理學家簡·格雷戈里說道，她本人就患有恐音癥，同時也是《聽起來像恐音癥》一書的作者。
"They used to live outside the window in my bedroom where I studied so I couldn't concentrate.
“它們曾住在我臥室窗外，而我常在那兒學習，這讓我根本無法集中注意力。
Pens clicking was another big one for me at school, like those four-color pens people would click every two seconds. It used to drive me insane."
在學校里，按動鋼筆的聲音也讓我困擾不已，尤其是那種人們每隔兩秒就按一下的四色筆。這簡直快把我逼瘋了。”
While the American Psychological Association does not formally recognize it, misophonia is increasingly being recognized by health professionals.
雖說美國心理協會并未正式承認恐音癥，但它正逐漸被更多健康專業人士所認可。
In October 2024, the Misophonia Research Fund announced $2.5 million of funding for projects.
2024年10月，恐音癥研究基金宣布為相關項目提供250萬美元資金。
"Misophonia is a disorder that has long been misunderstood and under-researched, leaving many affected individuals without adequate answers or support," says the fund's executive director, Lauren Harte-Hargrove.
該基金執行董事勞倫·哈特-哈格羅夫表示：“恐音癥長期以來被誤解，研究也不夠充分，這使得許多受影響的人得不到足夠的解答和支持。”
Here's what scientists are doing to understand why certain sounds trigger such extreme reactions -- and what can be done to help.
接下來，讓我們一同了解科學家為探究為何某些聲音會引發如此極端反應所做的研究，以及有哪些應對措施能提供幫助。
