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> some of my colleagues just put noise-suppression headphones

Great. Now the rest of us have to put up with even more noise.

People wearing headphones make a lot more noise themselves. Presumably because they don't hear the noise they make. Suddenly there's heavy breathing, sighs, grunts, moans, inaudible and sometimes disturbingly audible mumbling, humming &c.




You might have Misophonia. It's not normal to be extremely irritated by sounds other people make.

The "normal" state is to be able to tune those out.


I'm not when it's normal noises, made by non headphone wearing people.

Normally people are conscious about the sounds they make and restrict them a bit. If you're coughing in a group, you try to do it softly, or you leave the room. Things like that. When people wear head phones this kind of subconscious self control seems to be a lot less effective.

I'm certainly not the only one to have made this observation.


I sometimes start audibly breathing with headphones on. Something I never do without them. So I won’t wear them around others when I can avoid it.

That’s aside from tapping I might not realize is making noise with headphones on, or a particular motion in my chair that’s making it squeak and I don’t know it because headphones, et c.


Loud breathing is one of my biggest concerns when wearing noise-cancelling headphones around others. Partly because I dislike hearing it from others and don't want to subject them to that, and partly because I don't want to sound like a smooth-brain mouth breather.




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