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Misokinesia: what is it, characteristics, symptoms, causes and how to manage it

Are you one of those who is very bothered by having someone sitting next to you who does not stop moving their legs? Are you nervous about the sound that that person makes when they do not stop cracking their fingers? And the drumming with his hands? This sensation has a name: misokinesia.

Misokinesia is a psychological phenomenon that, although it is not considered a mental disorder far from it, it is a quite annoying condition, capable even of distancing us from someone whose bodily nervousness makes us unbearable.

This psychological phenomenon is experienced in many ways and, although in principle it is not worrisome, it can become an obstacle to our social life. Let's find out why ...

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What is misokinesia?

Misokinesia is a psychological disorder that is usually accompanied by discomfort and discomfort when seeing and hearing someone who does not stop making small repetitive body movements.

For example, a person with this psychological condition would feel very uncomfortable having someone around who does not stop doing sounds with your fingers, clicks with the pen over and over, makes your legs shake while sitting or does not stop rocking on your chair.

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This word is relatively new, but the psychological phenomenon behind it has been suspected for some time. We have proof of this in a 2014 Dutch investigation carried out by the University of Amsterdam in which the existence of misokinesia was already anticipated.

In their study, Arjan Schröder's research group addressed the misophoniaIn other words, the irritability of hearing sounds like the dripping of a tap, hearing someone chew, the sound of notifications from a mobile phone.

The researchers saw that A good part of her experimental sample was not only prone to being uncomfortable with certain sounds, but also had another extreme reaction: the discomfort of seeing and hearing certain body movements.

It was precisely from this finding that with the passage of time another research group, that of the scientist Sumeet Jaswal (University of British Columbia) would propose the name “misokinesia” from the Greek “miso”, which means “hate”, and “kinesis”, which means "movement".

As conceptualized by Jaswal's group, misokinesia can be defined as a strong negative affective or emotional response to the sight of small and repetitive body movements of others, such as seeing someone move a hand or foot senselessly. In spite of being minor movements and that they do not suppose damage for the receiver, produce enough anguish to not want to be near the person who carries them out.

Causes of misokinesia
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Symptoms

Misokinesia it is not a mental disorder nor is it a condition serious enough on its own to require urgent professional help. Since its conceptualization is relatively recent, to this day it is still being studied and defined what are the characteristic symptoms of this phenomenon.

Proof of this is the study by Sumeet Jaswal, which has sought to clarify and understand this phenomenon in greater depth. His study affirms that this phenomenon can affect about 33% of the population, an extremely high percentage. Some of the symptoms that a person with misokinesia may manifest are:

  • Irritability and even feeling angry when someone makes repetitive body movements.
  • Feeling anxious when someone closes and opens a pen, squeezes a stress ball, cracks their fingers, or taps them on a surface.
  • Stay away from people who do repetitive movements.

It should be said that each person is different and so is the way misokinesia affects them. There are different degrees of this condition, and it also manifests itself in very different ways in terms of the stimulus that is bothersome to those who have this syndrome. What most people who have this peculiar phenomenon have in common is that they feel anxiety and discomfort in the face of other people's movements, being able to bear them or not to a greater or lesser extent measure.

There are cases that are serious, while there are people who are unable to work or meet people who know that they are especially nervous or that they move their legs or hands in a compulsive way. Being around someone with many nervous tics can be an ordeal for a person with misokinesia, becoming very distracting when the person in question executes repetitive movements without stopping.

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What is its cause?

Since it is a relatively recent concept, there is not yet enough data to point to the exact cause behind misokinesia. However, given its possible relationship with misophonia, a condition for which its cause is known. It has been seen that the phobia of certain sounds, such as listening to others chew or even breathe, has a brain origin.

Research on misophonia has found that people with this condition have a alteration in the anterior insular cortex, a region that becomes hyperactive when exposed to certain sounds. This is a region that activates intense emotions, such as fear or anger, in addition to being associated with the sensation of stress, increased sweating and the frequency of the heartbeat. Given the potential relationship between misophonia and misokinesia, it is expected that this same region becomes hyperactive in people with this second condition.

Added to this, it has been speculated that mirror neurons could also be involved. These neurons are activated when we see someone do something, replicating it in our brain and imagining that we ourselves also carry out the same action. With misokinesia what would happen is that, the simple fact of seeing someone with a nervous tic, would activate mirror neurons and we would experience that nervousness in our own flesh, only at very superiors.

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How to manage this annoying psychological phenomenon?

Misokinesia is a phenomenon that has been discovered recently, but is believed to have a high incidence in the population and therefore it is a matter of time before they are addressed in depth and it is discovered how this psychological phenomenon can be managed. As this problem affects each person in a different way, each one can develop and manage very different strategies for coping with (or avoiding) the situations that cause your misokinesia to come to the fore light.

As we have commented before it is not considered a mental disorder or something serious enough on its own to require professional help.

However, if feeling uncomfortable with the repetitive movements of other people is a degree of high impact on social, work, academic and family life, it would be advisable to go to a psychologist for learn anxiety management techniques and learn to stop noticing other people's tics.

Likewise, we can put into practice relaxation techniques and deep breathing to reduce anxiety symptoms. You can also use the technique of visualization, which consists of creating an alternative mental image while someone in real life is executing movements that are uncomfortable for us. We can try to implement the assertiveness, asking the person who does the repetitive movements to please stop doing them, although it may be the case that it is not always possible ...

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