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Melissa Gilbert Reveals She Has Neurological Disability Misophonia: 'Dark and Difficult Part of My Childhood'

"Little House on the Prairie" actress Melissa Gilbert, 60, reveals that she has misophonia, a condition that causes intense emotional reactions to certain sounds. Gilbert says she "sobbed" when she learned that her reactions to chewing and clapping were due to a real, treatable condition.

As a kid, Melissa Gilbert was known as sunny "Half Pint" Laura Ingalls on the beloved TV series Little House on the Prairie, but the actress says behind her wide smile, she was secretly struggling. When she'd film scenes for the show in the school room set, "if any of the kids chewed gum or ate or tapped their fingernails on the table, I would want to run away so badly," Gilbert tells PEOPLE. Many years later, she learned that her intense reactions to certain noises were due to a real neurological disability known as misophonia, a condition in which those suffering from it experience strong and unpleasant emotional, physiological and behavioral responses to sound, and sometimes visual triggers

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