As you can tell, things have been quite busy for me. Between deadlines at work, physical therapy for my shoulder, getting ready to go back to NYC to visit my family - which is back to back with attending my annual lighting conference - I've been pretty distracted (yet again). Hoping to balance myself out soon.
The mornings I do physical therapy have been quite a misophonia challenge. I try to remember to bring in my earplugs but when I wear sweatpants that don't have pockets, I wind up forgetting. Those wind up being the most annoying sessions... When my physical therapist isn't working with someone, every now and then he'll break into a whistle (my biggest trigger). Sometimes the repetitive motions that the other patients are doing in their workouts are visual triggers for me, but usually I can close my eyes to block them out. On Tuesday though, I was doing an exercise where I lay on the floor on top of a foam cylinder with my arms outstretched to the sides as far as they can go. It just so happens that I forgot my earplugs that morning and the patient directly next to me starts sniffling. Over... and over... and over... My exercise was only supposed to be for 4 minutes but I couldn't take his sniffling for even 10 seconds. I wound up getting up and walking into the other room. The technician knows about my misophonia but I really don't think she understands it. Oh well. At least it forced me to bring in my Bluetooth earbuds for the Thursday session.
Wednesday, I had a full-day professional event by one of the manufacturers we use. Two of my coworkers also attended - one of whom is the junior designer who used to share the cubicle pod with me, so she knows and understands my struggles with triggers. We entered the first seminar late, so there weren't many seats left where we could all sit together. So, I sat with them about 2/3 back from the speaker. Not a fun experience for me. Between the people next to me bouncing their feet/legs, chewing gum, opening soda cans, and drinking water/coffee and the people in front of me setting off visual triggers... I wound up saying to my coworkers for the subsequent sessions that I didn't mean to be rude but I have to move to the front row. Moving to the front row wasn't perfect - since the first few rows had tables with tablecloths, the person next to me bouncing his foot shook the tablecloth right in my field of view below me - but I was still able to focus on the presentation better than when I had been sitting much further back.
I look forward to the day when I can go to a presentation and not have it matter where I sit!
The mornings I do physical therapy have been quite a misophonia challenge. I try to remember to bring in my earplugs but when I wear sweatpants that don't have pockets, I wind up forgetting. Those wind up being the most annoying sessions... When my physical therapist isn't working with someone, every now and then he'll break into a whistle (my biggest trigger). Sometimes the repetitive motions that the other patients are doing in their workouts are visual triggers for me, but usually I can close my eyes to block them out. On Tuesday though, I was doing an exercise where I lay on the floor on top of a foam cylinder with my arms outstretched to the sides as far as they can go. It just so happens that I forgot my earplugs that morning and the patient directly next to me starts sniffling. Over... and over... and over... My exercise was only supposed to be for 4 minutes but I couldn't take his sniffling for even 10 seconds. I wound up getting up and walking into the other room. The technician knows about my misophonia but I really don't think she understands it. Oh well. At least it forced me to bring in my Bluetooth earbuds for the Thursday session.
Wednesday, I had a full-day professional event by one of the manufacturers we use. Two of my coworkers also attended - one of whom is the junior designer who used to share the cubicle pod with me, so she knows and understands my struggles with triggers. We entered the first seminar late, so there weren't many seats left where we could all sit together. So, I sat with them about 2/3 back from the speaker. Not a fun experience for me. Between the people next to me bouncing their feet/legs, chewing gum, opening soda cans, and drinking water/coffee and the people in front of me setting off visual triggers... I wound up saying to my coworkers for the subsequent sessions that I didn't mean to be rude but I have to move to the front row. Moving to the front row wasn't perfect - since the first few rows had tables with tablecloths, the person next to me bouncing his foot shook the tablecloth right in my field of view below me - but I was still able to focus on the presentation better than when I had been sitting much further back.
I look forward to the day when I can go to a presentation and not have it matter where I sit!
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