Misokinesia: The condition that makes people hate fidgeting

For the latest research, featured in the journal PLoS One, external, experts carried out indepth interviews with 21 people belonging to a misokinesia support group.

Common triggers were leg, hand or foot movements – jiggling thighs, twitchy fingers and shuffling shoes.

Pen clicking and hair twiddling were also triggers, though not quite as frequently.

Often people reported some overlap with another more recognised condition called misophonia – an intense dislike of others people’s noises, such as heavy breathing or loud eating.

It’s impossible to know exactly how many people might be experiencing misokinesia.

One recent Canadian study, external suggested perhaps one in three of us might be aversely affected by other people fidgeting, experiencing intense feelings of rage, torture and disgust.

I spoke with Dr Jane Gregory, a clinical psychologist at Oxford University in the UK, who has been studying and treating both misokinesia and misophonia.

She told BBC News: “The two go alongside each other very frequently. Often people have both at the same time.”

Although there is no good data, Dr Gregory says the conditions are probably suprisingly common.

“Obviously, people have been experiencing it for a long time but just didn’t have a name for it.”

The severity of people’s aversion to fidgeting varies, she tells me.

“Some people might get really annoyed by fidgeting or repetitive movements but it doesn’t impact massively on day-to-day life,” she says.

Others, however, may “get a really strong emotional reaction – anger, panic or distress – and just can’t filter them out”.

Through Dr Gregory’s work, she tends to meet people with more extreme symptoms. Many are adults who have endured misokinesia for years, but some are in their early teens and experiencing it for the first time.