Misophonia Is a Newly Defined Disorder, but Is It an Anxiety Disorder?

Misophonia is characterized by unusually distressing reactions to certain repetitive audiovisual stimuli produced by others, most commonly oral (e.g., eating, throat clearing, gum popping) or nasal (e.g., sniffing, heavy breathing) sounds. Using the acronym BASIC, we review shared features between misophonia and anxiety disorders across behavioral, attentional, somatic, interpersonal, and cognitive domains of functioning. This paper explores whether misophonia should be classified as an anxiety disorder, with emphasis on ways in which misophonia can be distinguished from the defining characteristics of anxiety disorders. Chief among these distinctions is the accumulating research indicating that anger (and related affective states such as irritation and resentment) is a central emotion more common than fear or anxiety in misophonia. With mounting data indicating that anxiety is not the primary core feature, scientific evidence does not justify classifying misophonia as an anxiety disorder.