An anonymous patient told a researcher, “If I see someone tapping their fingers on the desk, my immediate thought is to cut their fingers off with a knife.”

Another shares: “When I see someone making small repetitive movements, like my husband curling his toes, I feel physically sick. I stop it but “I feel like vomiting.”

Sound familiar? If so, you probably have a condition called misokinesia – an aversion to movement.

Scientists are trying to understand more about the phenomenon that still has no known cause.

For the latest research, featured in Journal PLoS OneExperts conducted in-depth interviews with 21 people associated with misokinesia support groups.

Common triggers were movements of the legs, arms or feet – shaking thighs, shaking fingers and shuffling shoes.

Clicking a pen and moving hair were also triggers, although not as often.

Often people report some overlap with another more recognized condition called misophonia – Strong dislike of other people’s noises, such as heavy breathing or loud eating.

It is impossible to know how many people may be experiencing misokinesia.

A recent Canadian study It has been suggested that perhaps one in three of us may be adversely affected by other people’s playfulness, experiencing intense feelings of anger, torture and disgust.

I spoke to Dr. Jane Gregory, a clinical psychologist at the University of Oxford in the UK, who studies and treats both misokinesia and misophonia.

“The two often go hand in hand. Often people have both at the same time,” he told BBC News.

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

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

People’s aversion to transience varies in severity, she tells me.

“Some people can be really bothered by the jitters or repetitive movements, but it doesn’t have a major impact on daily life,” she says.

However, others “may have a really strong emotional response – anger, panic or distress – and just can’t filter them out”.

Through Dr. Gregory’s work, she meets people with more severe symptoms. There are many adults who have suffered from misokinesia for years, but some are in their early teens and experiencing it for the first time.

Andrea, 62, from the UK, says she was diagnosed with misophonia and misokinesia at the age of 13, but it was not recognized at the time.

One of his earliest memories of the condition is of being harassed at school by a girl who was picking her nails.

“Most misokinesia centers around people’s hands – what they are doing with their hands and what they are touching,” she says.

Another trigger for her is when people partially cover their mouth with their hand while speaking – she has a hard time seeing and feels like her own mouth hurts when she does this.

Andrea says the anger she feels is explosive and immediate.

“There’s no thought process to it. There’s no justification for it. It just explodes inside you, which is why it’s so disturbing.”

She tells me she has tried different strategies to manage her condition, but can’t seem to stop it.

She now avoids herself from society, living alone and working from home, and says her entire life is built around avoiding things that might upset her.

Andrea says she has a lot of supportive friends who understand that sometimes she needs to change the way she interacts with them.

“It’s easier to just walk away. To try and get away with it. You can’t tell other people not to do things.”

She explains that she does not blame people for their wastefulness and understands that most people’s actions are unconscious and out of habit.

Andrea says sharing her experiences with the Facebook support group has really helped.

Julie, who is 54 and from Hull, says the main emotion she experiences with misokinesia is anger.

“The other day, I was on the bus and there was a woman walking by and both of her arms were swinging. I couldn’t take my eyes off her. I was actually getting worried by her, not angry.

“It’s silly things like someone’s making a cup of tea for me and they bring out the teabag and bounce it up and down, up and down, up and down. Why?

“Or if someone is sitting there and wiggling their foot. I can’t take my eyes off them. Or if I look away, I have to look back to see if they’re still doing it.”

She tells the BBC that the unpleasant sensation afterwards can bother her for hours.

“I’m not an angry person. It just makes me feel like there’s a ball in my stomach that wants to burst. It’s not angry, it’s actually just feeling anxious inside.”

Julie says that she is not afraid to ask people to stop doing something she finds upsetting, but rather walks away from it.

Her misokinesia makes her sad, she tells me.

“It makes me internalize it. I don’t like feeling that way.”

Dr. Gregory says the condition can be extremely debilitating and can prevent people from concentrating and doing normal things.

“A part of their brain is constantly thinking about this activity,” she explains.

“They may have violent images in their mind. They want to grab the person and force them to stop…even if they wouldn’t be angry in their normal lives.”

As for why some people become agitated, Dr. Gregory says it may be an increased basic survival instinct – like a meerkat looking for danger.

She compares this sensation to seeing “someone running away” or “following footsteps behind you.”

“For some people, you don’t tune in again. Your brain is constantly monitoring.”

This is not very useful in the noisy and busy modern life, she says.

And if you continue to get agitated, frustration and anger can arise.

For some people, it’s the habits of strangers that are most irritating, while for others, it’s the habits of loved ones.

Dr. Gregory says a common way people manage this condition is to avoid looking at the flicker or distract themselves.

Others may try to avoid people altogether, as much as possible.

If there’s only a distinct visual trigger — such as twirling hair — the expert says it’s sometimes possible to use it. Reframing Therapy Helping the person view the situation in a more positive way.

“You can look at it intentionally and create a new story about why someone is making that movement.”

This can help reduce anger and anxiety, she says.

“A lot of people feel really embarrassed or ashamed that they get such strong reactions,” says Dr. Gregory.

“This can be a problem in itself because suppressing your feelings can intensify them and make them worse.”