Sense Haven: A Site Dedicated to Misophonia
  • Home
  • Triggers
  • Resources
    • General Information
    • Scientific Research
    • Non-Scientific Articles
    • Video and Audio Clips
    • Articles Focused on School-Aged Children
    • Other Misophonia Websites/Blogs
  • Coping Tools
  • Support Venues
  • Blog
  • Past Polls
  • Contact

The "Butterfly's Whisper" Blog

Welcome to my blog. I hope by sharing my own misophonia experiences, others who are frustrated with misophonia sensitivities will discover that they're not alone. I also hope that people who may not have misophonia will gain some insight about what it's like to have this condition.

Please feel free to post any comments or use the "Contact Us" page if you have any questions/comments you don't want to post online.

Contact ME

Moving along nicely...

9/17/2014

4 Comments

 
Although I still have a LOT of boxes to unpack from the move, that task is proving to be taking longer than I had hoped - mainly because it's still difficult to try to unpack when the rustling paper noises upset my cockatiel and he starts whining (one of my triggers). I can only tolerate his whines for short durations of time before I need to walk away from my apartment and try to de-stress.

Work-wise, things are going well. I do get exposed to triggers on a daily basis - from whistling to eating noises. I just have to remember to put my earbuds in so I can tune them out (literally) and bring earplugs with me to meetings in case I sit next to a coffee slurper. Yesterday I realized that the recycling bin where people smoosh their large paper plots into the bin is right next to my desk. It hasn't been an issue yet, but at some point I might want to see if we can relocate it further from my desk so I don't hear crunching paper being thrown out. As I mentioned in previous posts, I'm trying to hold on as long as I can before saying anything so that everyone can have a good first impression of me before I talk about my misophonia. Hopefully I won't have to mention it at all, but at least I've been very impressed with how nice everyone has been. I have a feeling that people here would be understanding of my situation if it ever did have to come up.

The most stressful misophonia trigger attack I've had over the past week (other than my bird's whines) was when I was standing in line to grab a bite to eat. A mother and her teenage son were standing in front of me and the son kept shifting back and forth, back and forth... Like Edger Allen Poe's pendulum to me... I *really* wanted to ask him to stop, but I just had a gut feeling that his response - or even worse, his mother's response - would be very harsh. It was a LONG wait in line with them in front of me and by the time I finally got my food, I found myself sitting in my car trying to do mindfulness breathing to calm my racing heart and racing thoughts. I've actually slacked off with my mindfulness practicing and I know I'm going to have to get back into the swing of those exercises soon.

Other than that, the days and weeks have been going by fairly quickly since I started working, so I must be having fun. Once I get fully unpacked and settled into my apartment, I hope to get back into the swing of regular misophonia writing again.

4 Comments

Blog catch-up

9/5/2014

0 Comments

 
Hello, everyone. Sorry for the long lag between posts. If you've ever done a major move by yourself before right before a new job, you probably understand how hectic it is trying to get into a regular routine again.

To give a brief update: Putting aside the "fun" I'm still dealing with unpacking my belongings after the move, so far so good with my new endeavor. I've been enjoying my new job. My coworkers are really nice, the work is fun and creative, and although I do experience a few misophonia triggers here and there (usually when I temporarily take out my earbuds), the work environment is much more acoustically isolating than recent firms where I've worked. It's a huge, open-office environment with carpeting, very high ceilings with acoustic tiles, and I'm back to being in a cubicle situation with fairly high partitions.

Yes, there is an occasional trigger here and there from a gum chewer or whistler here and there but for the most part, it's been pretty tolerable. I only mentioned my misophonia to one coworker - my pod mate - who I tried to explain my head-jerk reaction to a trigger sound during a conversation we were having. She seemed to be understanding of my explanation and once or twice even asked me if something she was doing at the time bothered me. I'm hoping that I won't have to bring it up to anyone else but at least, from the experiences I've had so far with my coworkers, I have a feeling that if I did need to mention it, they'd likely be sympathetic to my condition.

I've experienced triggers outside of the office too, but mainly from my bird. As I mentioned in a previous post, I think he might be sensitive to certain sounds too - particularly the sound of crumpling paper when packing and unpacking boxes. His whining makes it tough to make decent progress with unpacking but I'm doing the best I can to get as much done with each unpacking effort so I can wrap this up as quickly as possible.

I'll do my best to get back to posting updates at least once a week as well as responding to submitted comments with only a couple day turn around. (For those readers who reached out to me over the past two weeks, I haven't forgotten you!) I hope you'll be patient with me during this unpacking stage since I still don't have a good working area in my apartment with which to set up a computer. I look forward to finally being settled into my new life out here!

0 Comments
    Want to know when a new blog entry is posted, then click the RSS Feed button below to sign up for the "Butterfly's Whisper" update notifications.

    RSS Feed

    Picture

    About the Author

    Emlyn Altman has been suffering with misophonia for over 40 years, even though she only found out about the actual medical condition much more recently. As frustrating as the condition has been over the years, her heightened sensitivities across all the senses considerably influenced her talents within the visual fine arts (particularly sculpture), music (singing, piano, and many other instruments), writing, and culinary backgrounds, as well as professional achievements as an architectural lighting designer. Her goal in developing this website is to promote more awareness about misophonia and help other sufferers as well.


    Archives

    October 2021
    January 2019
    March 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    January 2017
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    December 2012

Copyright © 2021 Emlyn G. Altman