Misophonia-wise... Now that I'm not being a hermit in my home anymore (the PNW trees/grasses/shrubs made me very sick) and I'm not working alone in an office, I'm back to the typical exposure of daily life triggers. My cubicle pod is right next to the kitchenette so there's always the sound of clinking silverware on China. Occassionally I've had to ask someone to stop doing a particular trigger. When I do, for the most part people are understanding. I'm lucky that my pod-mates are conscious of some of the triggers that bother me, and are apologetic if I do mention something is triggering me. One of my pod-mates was even curious to know more about my misophonia.
On the other hand, I still do encounter the occasional person who gets annoyed by my asking to stop a trigger. One situation in particular is the new choral group I joined. I'm so happy that my allergies have cleared up and I can get back to singing again; however, I was assigned a position smack in the center of the risers where all of the choral members stand. One woman, who I can't seem to get away from, originally stood in front of me but is now behind me. She's triggered me with her knuckle cracking and even whistling , which is really bad because the risers put her mouth at the same level as my ear so the whistling trigger is even worse. At the last rehearsal, I asked her to stop b/c of my sound sensitivity. She looked at me as if I was crazy. Like, "How can you have a sound sensitivity and be in a singing group."
What people don't understand is that it's the TYPE of sound that is bothersome, not all sounds. The person next to me seemed to understand, but I do worry about what's going to happen in the future with this "culprit." I have to be in my assigned location until April, due to our getting ready for a competition in March and our locations were specifically arranged to get the optimum sound for the group. Once we get beyond the contest though, I think I'm going to bring up my situation with the Director of the group and see if I can be relocated.
We'll see what happens....