The actress from "Little House on the Prairie" found herself overwhelmed with emotion when she discovered that her intense reactions to everyday sounds like chewing and clapping were linked to a real, treatable condition.
Melissa Gilbert, who was adored by audiences as the cheerful "Half Pint" Laura Ingalls on the iconic TV series, reveals that beneath her bright smile, she was grappling with a secret struggle.
Simple, everyday sounds—chewing, gum popping, nails clicking, and even the sound of hands clapping—would trigger intense anger within her.
When filming scenes in the schoolroom set, "if any of the kids chewed gum, ate, or tapped their fingernails on the table, I felt an overwhelming urge to run away," Gilbert shared. "I’d turn beet red, tears would well up in my eyes, and I’d just sit there, feeling absolutely miserable and horribly guilty for harboring such hateful feelings towards people I cared about."
"It was a really dark and difficult part of my childhood," Gilbert, now 60, reflects.
Many years later, she learned that her severe reactions to certain sounds were due to a legitimate neurological condition known as misophonia. This condition causes individuals to experience strong and unpleasant emotional, physiological, and behavioral responses to specific sounds and sometimes visual triggers.
"I broke down in tears when I realized it had a name and that I wasn’t just a bad person," Gilbert admits. Now, she hopes to raise awareness about the condition alongside the Duke Center for Misophonia and Emotional Regulation at Duke University's School of Medicine.
For years, her family believed she was just a fussy child who "would glare at my parents, grandmother, and siblings with eyes filled with anger," she recalls. "I thought I was being rude and felt immense guilt—an enormous part of misophonia is the guilt you feel for those fight-or-flight emotions. It’s an incredibly isolating disorder."
Even her own children knew that something as simple as chewing could provoke her. "I had a hand signal I used—a puppet-like gesture where I’d make my hand look like it was chewing and then snap it shut, signaling them to stop," she remembers. "My poor kids grew up with this. They weren’t allowed to chew gum."
As Gilbert reached menopause, her reactions to sounds intensified, leading to moments of anger. "I became more irritable," says Gilbert, who co-founded the lifestyle brand Modern Prairie and is married to actor Timothy Busfield. "As the estrogen drained away, the anger surged, affecting my daily interactions with loved ones."
Although she knew the condition had a name, it wasn’t until last year that she discovered it could be treated when she came across Duke's Center for Misophonia. "I reached out desperately and said, 'I need help. Please help me,'" Gilbert recounts, sharing that she posted a video about her experience on the center's website.
Dr. Zach Rosenthal, the center’s director, responded, assuring her, "There’s help. You’re not alone." This message was "huge" for Gilbert. She learned that Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) is an effective treatment for misophonia, and she underwent 16 weeks of intensive CBT.
"This is an emotional issue. It’s about self-regulation and self-control," Gilbert explains, urging others to be wary of "snake-oil" salesmen who falsely claim they can cure the condition with treatments or medication. With CBT, "I realized I could ride out these waves of emotion, even though they’ll never fully go away. But now, I have tools that help me feel more comfortable and less triggered. I feel more in control."
For instance, Gilbert learned to recognize that when she’s stressed, she unconsciously clenches her feet. "So as soon as I feel it coming on, I relax my feet," she says. "Once I have control over my feet, everything else seems to follow."
Thanks to the strategies she learned through CBT, "everyone around me doesn’t have to walk on eggshells," she says. In fact, last Christmas, she gave her children a special gift: packs of gum they could chew without fearing her reaction. "It’s transformed my entire life."
The Quran - Chapter At-Tahrim : 09
O Prophet! Struggle against the disbelievers and the hypocrites, and be firm with them. Hell will be their home. What an evil destination!
