Almost all my life I’ve absolutely despised children. Pretty much from the moment I stopped being a child I’ve hated being around children.

It doesn’t even matter what the child is doing. Whether they’re laughing and having fun or screaming and throwing a tantrum. The sound of a child being loud activates an almost primal rage that I can barely contain.

I’ve had to leave social gatherings/restaurants/grocery stores all because if I’d stayed I’d have made a complete ass of myself by screaming at a child just for existing.

It’s even worse with infants which makes me feel horrible because I know they can’t help it. I know the kids don’t know any better and it’s our job as adults to get them through childhood, but my blood boils when they get loud or demand attention.

Has anyone else dealt with something like this? Is there anything I can do to stop from getting so angry?

  • TootSweet@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    Therapy. It’s clear this is causing you problems in your life. And that’s exactly what therapy is for.

  • NABDad@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    I’m just a dickhead on the Internet, but what you’re describing doesn’t sound normal or healthy to me. Have you tried therapy?

    • ThatWeirdGuy1001@lemmy.worldOP
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      1 year ago

      I’ve done therapy a few times now and we never really covered this.

      It doesn’t help that I live in a small town so the therapists here are extremely underqualified for actual mental illness and not just helping people through “tough” times

        • ThatWeirdGuy1001@lemmy.worldOP
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          1 year ago

          I’ve tried that more times than actual in person therapy and it’s extremely hard for me to form the emotional attachment necessary for me to let my guard down and bare my thoughts and feelings.

          It feels so fake and forced. I feel more like a subject being examined than a patient there for care

          • rynzcycle@kbin.social
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            1 year ago

            Your mileage may vary, but have you tried over the phone instead of video chat (if it’s an option where you live)? I felt exactly the same about video, but something about over the phone felt chill, I could just “chat with a friend” in my pajamas. Helped me a lot and neither my therapist or I ever actually saw each other.

            • kautau@lemmy.world
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              1 year ago

              Or even just messages. I believe that betterhelp offers purely messages for therapy, which would maybe help start a more trusting relationship first. And they could either stick with messages, or if they’re comfortable, move to voice therapy

          • Lmaydev
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            1 year ago

            At the end of the day with therapy you get out what you put in. They can’t help you work through issues if they don’t know what they are.

            I recently had a breakdown and attended therapy. I decided from the start I’d just be completely open and throw everything I have at them.

            It was massively helpful and has transformed my life.

            It’s their job to listen and not judge and they’ve definitely heard much much worse stuff.

          • Chobbes@lemmy.world
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            1 year ago

            I get that, but for what it’s worth… You really can kind of just dump it on them. They’re not allowed to share it, and they’re often happy to just get to the point sometimes. Though it does feel more transactional that way.

          • TimewornTraveler@lemm.ee
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            1 year ago

            yeah tele medicine isn’t always great. the bond is important, and it’s harder to build that way.

            keep checking out your town. even a small town is gonna have a decent number of therapists. don’t worry too much about their expertise. if they’re licensed, they have the training to help you. trust that and focus on the bond.

    • PullUpCircuit@iusearchlinux.fyi
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      1 year ago

      That’s not a terrible idea. They might even tell you that your emotions are not uncommon and give you some tips for dealing with it.

      Or something else could be going on and you could get some more complete therapy.

      Source: being some other jerk on the Internet.

    • krellor@kbin.social
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      1 year ago

      I was unfamiliar with misophonia so I went looking into it. I know it is a poorly studied issue, but I wasn’t able to find any peer reviewed research where children’s noises in general were used or reported as a trigger. I found lots of discussion forums, but that is anecdotal.

      The reason I went digging is because the op describes all children’s noises, happy, sad, whatever, whereas what I read in the literature was very specific noises were reported as triggers. E.g, lip smacking, chewing, pen clicking, etc. In one study, they even used videos of children and dogs playing to help participants calm down and establish a baseline. https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0227118

      While I’m admittedly ignorant, it seems OP may have a more general aversion to children than I would expect of misophonia given what I’ve read from medical sources.

      I only mention this as a counter suggestion to help op avoid self diagnosing and maybe going down the wrong track.

      I think counseling is warranted to help sort it out.

        • Chobbes@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          I have misophonia and kids are definitely a big trigger in a lot of ways… Screaming, crying, chewing, coughing. It’s anecdotal, but yeah the high pitch sounds don’t play nice with my brain. Misophonia suuuuuuuuuucks.

          I also don’t particularly like kids, but that’s not really about the sound. Just not my cup of tea.

    • OceanSoap@lemmy.ml
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      1 year ago

      I’ll have to look into this. People chewing normally don’t bother me, but if someone is sitting close and chews with their mouth open… yeah, instant rage.

    • HootinNHollerin@slrpnk.net
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      I’ll have to look into this again thanks, but Just a cautionary note that it can be hard to get off of beta blockers iirc

  • 🇰 🌀 🇱 🇦 🇳 🇦 🇰 ℹ️@yiffit.net
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    Whether they’re laughing and having fun or screaming and throwing a tantrum. The sound of a child being loud activates an almost primal rage that I can barely contain.

    This is actually a neurological thing. It has a name and everything (though I can’t recall what the name is). A lot of people on the spectrum have it. You may want to talk to a therapist about it, if this isn’t merely hyperbole.

  • BleatingZombie@lemmy.world
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    I have no advice, but I have to say I really admire and appreciate you for acknowledging that it’s unfair for the children and trying to change that. Most people aren’t strong enough to introspect

    I would even argue that you’ve already done the hard part

  • morphballganon@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    I’ve noticed a correlation between the trait you describe and high-functioning autism. I’ve dated two women with the trait you describe, and one of them was diagnosed HFA, and the other showed signs of HFA but was undiagnosed last I heard.

    We have a tendency to expect others to show the same level of maturity as we’ve learned to exhibit ourselves. Being accepting of those who haven’t learned that level of maturity is a skill that must be learned. Learning teaching skills/methods helps with this.

    • Swedneck@discuss.tchncs.de
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      1 year ago

      fwiw some people REALLY hate the term “high functioning”, i’m myself what would be called really high functioningly autistic and have been quite condescendingly informed that the term is somehow terrible.

  • Ech@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    Could be worth looking into Misophonia. Basically it’s an irrational anger response to specific noises that vary person to person. I don’t know enough about it to say how it can be dealt with, but it may be something you could find a specialist for.

  • wooki@lemmynsfw.com
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    1 year ago

    See a shrink you have at minimum anger management problems being triggered here. Anxiety and perhaps some form of neurological disorder if you’re sensitive to loud noises in general but it’s worth finding out to manage it.

  • test113@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    I know of one person in my wider circle who reacts also pretty bad when children are being children around him. In his childhood, every time he was loud, wanted attention, or just did what a child does, his parents (they did not even want children; he was an “accident”) got really angry at him. So children being children is a trigger for him.

    Talking to a trained professional helped him immensely to handle this.

  • Artisian@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    It’s very weird to me that you’re only listing loud things children do… Like, have you ever been around a sleeping child? Do they bother you? What about in a classroom, watching a movie, or running in the distance (out of earshot)?

    Average volume of a child is higher than adults, but only by a factor of 2 or so. And their noises are interpretable, you can definitely figure out what they mean, unlike the adult noises.

  • Surp@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    Seek mental help from a therapist for a start. Instead of talking to people online that you have no idea what their intentions are or which way they wanna steer you best bet is get therapy…you need it.

  • Terces@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    You might have misophonia.

    Also…I try to imagine kids as little robot machines. They do their thing and they make their sounds like little choo choo trains. This image also underlines that they often just react to things. Input; output. So the focus shifts from the kid to the situation and the surroundings (as does the blame).

  • PrincessLeiasCat@sh.itjust.works
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    OP, don’t feel alone or hopeless. There are more of us out here who know exactly what you’re describing because we experience it ourselves.

    It doesn’t mean you’re a bad person or that it’s your fault for experiencing this - there’s not much you can do to “fix” it, if anything. I’ve been to a therapist and medical professionals, and basically noise cancelling AirPods or ear plugs in public are the only solution. And maybe some medications.

    We used to have neighbors with several small children who would - at the same time every day - go play in their backyard. Normal kid thing. But if I was outside, I’d have to go back in. The frequency or pitch or whatever you want to call it of the loud shrieks was literally painful. I would cry.

    I see other replies saying it may be a factor of you not being able to express yourself in the same way as a child. I wasn’t either because my mom is terrified of the outside world & it would make her think I was in danger. Whether this played a role or not I have no idea. I don’t want to attribute it to purely psychological reasons when it sounds like there is potentially also an actual physical medical explanation. Maybe it’s a combination, maybe not. Who knows.

    It’s a fact of life that IMO you cannot control and will have to have a plan for if and when it occurs. Earplugs, leaving the triggering situation, medication, I hope you find something that works. It is fucking painful. And I can’t control that. And it’s no one’s fault…we just try to avoid situations where young children will be present (which is really fucking hard at times for a woman, btw…baby showers! Parties where the women are expected to be the caretakers because….uterus, I suppose?).

    Anyway, best of luck to you, it’s not your fault, and feel free to reach out any time.

    • A_A@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      You were writing it before i could :
      Quick fix : good ear plugs 😄👍 (and the rest of your comment is very nice as well : that, I could not have written)

      P.S. : Hey cat, please tell me : do you like this song : Supertramp - School (1974) - Crime of the Century (album) ? (Warning : sounds of children playing) … and also I am thinking : maybe desensitization would work ?