[mikekchar]

I suffer from this (or at least I think I do -- I get irrationally angry at certain noises). One thing that has surprisingly helped me has been repeated exposure.

I worked for 5 years at a Japanese high school and quite a few of the noises that drive me batty (slurping drinks/soup and .. cutting finger/toe nails, if you can believe it) happen frequently in the teacher's room. High schools in Japan are different from those in the west in that teachers don't get their own class rooms. They have to do all their prep work in a large, cramped, noisy, open-concept office (with no dividers). So I was exposed on all sides.

Some things that really helped me is that I'm a programmer by training, not a teacher. Working as a programmer requires a lot more concentration than working as a teacher. When I was doing my prep work, I could mechanically carry on most of my tasks even when I was absolutely enraged by the environment.

Because I was working on contract, I didn't have to work as much overtime as a regular teacher. This gave me plenty of time to program in the office. At first it was impossible, but over time I was able to work a bit and then just sit there for however long it took for me to calm down. Then I would work a bit more. Eventually, I could calm down quite quickly. These days I'm quite good at recognising when I'm starting to get angry and do whatever it is that calms me down (even I don't really understand what that is, unfortunately).

Not super detailed, but I hope it gives you some hints on things you can try.