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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.

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Talking about misophonia...

2/13/2013

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Over the past month or so, it occurred to me that if I really want to be more vocal about promoting better misophonia awareness to the public, I needed to rejoin a group where my membership lapsed several years ago... Toastmasters. Although each individual club has its own unique style, in general when I was a member of Toastmasters, my speaking skills dramatically improved (plus it was such a great way to make new friends.)

Over the past three weeks, I visited three different clubs near my office. I noticed that I made a special effort to sit myself at a location very close to the speakers' lecturn, in the hopes of minimizing any visual/audio triggers I might experience. (This is something I realize I've been doing a lot lately when attending conferences or other events with a lot of people.) The first club I visited, the only triggers I noticed were a couple of nervous actions by newbie speakers (jingling coins in their pockets, fidgiting as they spoke) but in general, the members of that club presented very well. They also had a "treatmaster" who brings yummie goodies to the meeting. That's one concern I might have with the club - especially if the treatmaster of the day winds up bringing something in that's really crunchy.

The second club was a different story. There weren't as many people as in the first club (only about 6-8 compared to about 20-24) but there were more people who were creating visual triggers (bouncing legs, tapping fingers on the table), one of whom sat next to me. I found myself positioning my long hair as a "blinder" or trying to position objects near me to block the view. I wasn't very successful though.

The third club, from which I just returned, was great. I think I only saw one person who brought lunch to the meeting and she was at the other end of the table, so if she had made any noise, I didn't hear it. I didn't notice any nervous fidgiting either. I have a feeling, this may be the club I join. I can't believe that I'm allowing my misophonia to influence my decision about which club to visit but with this condition... I guess I've got to do what's be
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    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.


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