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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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Thankful thoughts...

11/27/2015

4 Comments

 
Today was the third solo Thanksgiving (and only the fourth since I learned of my misophonia). In all honesty, I don't mind spending a relaxing Thanksgiving evening with just myself and da boid.  After so many years of misery being tortured by eating triggers at the Thanksgiving table, I found these three past solo  Thanksgivings have been the most pleasant - and requiring the least amount of recovery time afterwards - in my life.

As much as it's strange not being with family during a time of year when togetherness is such a big deal, as a misophonia sufferer, I find there's something very special about being able to take a break from the stress of daily life misophonia triggers on probably one of the biggest trigger holidays of the year. If you look at any of my prior posts about triggers while traveling... Imagine that ten fold when stuck in an airport with anxious travelers during one of the busiest travel days or sitting at a crowded Thanksgiving table where you're surrounded by noisy eaters for three or four hours. No... It's ironic but I'm thankful for having quiet time during this typically trigger saturated holiday weekend. But I'm thankful for so much more than that...

I'm thankful that despite the great distances between me and my family and friends around the country, they are all so close to me and my heart. I'm thankful for my health and that of my family/friends (not to mention my bird's health too). I may be extremely busy with the more involved responsibilities of my new job, but having been laid off four times in a decade, I'm thankful for having a job period, let alone one as an "Owner-in-Training" with the potential for major professional growth and prestige. I'm thankful for having a roof over my head (despite the fact that not fifty feet away from my backyard the land that was being cleared for construction of 90 new homes is on 24/7 mudslide watch.

I'm also very thankful for all the support and feedback that I've received over these nearly 3 years of journaling  my quest for relief from misophonia. It's hard to believe that I've been writing this blog for that long. I'd like to thank all the readers who not only have visited the SenseHaven.com website and sent comments about this "Butterfly's Whisper blog," but have kept coming back despite the delays between postings over this past year as I try to get some stability in my life after three major relocations by myself in a year (two of which were cross-country). I'm hopeful that this long weekend will finally give me the break I need to finish settling into my new place and allow me to get back into the swing of what I began with this website/blog back in 2012. It is all the wonderful feedback I've received over the years hearing that this website has helped others like me who struggle with misophonia that make this effort all worthwhile!

So happy (now belated) Thanksgiving everyone! Hope you have a trigger-free holiday season!
4 Comments
Ariel
12/1/2015 03:57:42 am

So true, nothing like a relaxing day away from triggers, holiday or no. For instance, I just ended a seasonal job that had the sweetest couple but they both smacked their gum loudly. at one point I had to work in the same aisle as the husband and in that close proximity I felt like his lips were an inch from my ear. Way to go on having the ability to stay alone on the holidays. My family will never let me forget it when I miss one.

Reply
Emlyn
12/2/2015 02:16:53 pm

Hi, Ariel. Thanks for the comment.

My family weren't too happy when I first decided to not come home during the holidays, but they are very understanding of my misophonia and my new job opportunity on the west coast (they're all east coast). I'm very fortunate that they do understand my situation as I know many other sufferers struggle with family who can't sympathize.

I can completely relate to trigger woes at your job. I love my new position, but my junior coworker here eats so much trigger-causing food that I want to pull my hair out. (Apples, large crinkly bags of potato chips, scraping out the last drop of yogurt from plastic containers, eating almonds that she drops on her desk by the handfuls...) It's just the two of us in an open office environment and although she knows about my misophonia, she just doesn't get it. What's weird is that I don't remember her eating such noisy things as much before I told her about my misophonia. Could be that she always has done it but every now and then I have a little nagging thought that maybe she's doing it on purpose.

I'm sure this will be a topic I write about in an upcoming post...

Reply
Ally
12/18/2015 08:33:01 pm

I am sorry to hear about your co-worker. Maybe if you had a polite conversation with her about how serious this condition actually is, she could understand a bit more. But I don't know, my family doesn't understand at all, and when I'm in the room while they are eating, and my fingers are in my ears, they make exaggerated mouth chews to spite and make fun of me. They just don't get the pain they are causing.

Emlyn
12/23/2015 01:49:41 pm

Hi, Ally. I appreciate your suggestion. It's so hard when it's just the two of us in the office. I figure it is much easier to just plug myself in than to confront her. Maybe it's the wrong way of thinking but she seems to understand that I do need to put earplugs in sometimes (even if she doesn't understand why). We'll see...

I'm so sorry to hear about your family. It's so hard when people take advantage of a person's weakness because they think it's funny when in actuality, it's a form of bullying. Have you ever showed them the 20/20 report on misophonia? I wonder if they not only saw how it makes someone that is not related to them miserable, they might try to understand it better. (Not sure if that makes sense. Am starting to feel a bit under the weather, but wanted to not delay responding to you.)

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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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