So, I've been at my birthplace city for the past two days while I wait for my aunt and uncle to arrive tomorrow. The flight over here Wednesday late evening was my typical misophonia travel experience (albeit more condensed since I left work late and had a very short layover... What is it with airlines and 50 minute layovers?) Anyway, even though I didn't have to wait at the gate long at either takeoff point, I did have two trigger experiences that I addressed. First, I heard a guy crack his gum behind me as we were boarding on the first leg. He actually wound up sitting in the seats across from mine; so while we were still boarding, I meekly said to him how I heard him crack his gum at the gate and asked if he could do me a favor and try not to crack it during the flight. I explained that I have a medical condition that makes me very sensitive to sharp noises like that. He was very nice and I didn't hear his gum the entire flight. (Granted, I was playing iPad games during most of that time, but I didn't hear anything during the "No Electronics" time either.)
Once I got to my layover point in Atlanta, I had to book it to my next flight one concourse over. Of course, they had already started boarding by the time I got there; so again, I didn't have to deal with the nervous fidgiting of anxious passengers waiting in the boarding area. Once I got on the plane though, I noticed (through my earplugs) that the two gentlemen sitting in front of me were having a very loud, and energetic conversation. I could feel it in my gut that they'd be talking the entire 2+ hour flight to my final destination. I was sitting in a window seat and noticed that the window seat on the other side of the aisle wasn't occupied yet; so, since the boarding was slowing down to a trickle of people, I gathered my stuff and moved to the other window seat. Just as I was about to sit down, the man who's seat I took boarded the plane. I looked at him and said, "I hope swapping seats was okay with you." He replied that since we both had window seats, he didn't mind. Sure enough, the men in front of my whole seat did gab away the entire flight. Although I was able to hear them even while wearing earplugs in my new location, at least it wasn't as bad as if they were directly in front of me.
I guess you can say that I directly confronted my first trigger experience and fled from my second. I think my response to triggers is usually contingent upon how intense the trigger is, the duration of the trigger, where I am when I'm exposed to the triggers, and how comfortable I feel with asking the triggerer to stop. I think by my thinking about how to respond rather than just exploding on the spot, I'm able to tailor my reaction to the situation. So far... I'd say (with rare exception), the results of my reactions have been pretty successful.
Well, rather than write a tome of a post here, now that I know I do have access to my blog fairly easily, I'll break up my thoughts into a couple of posts (and may even do multiple posts in a day). Some of the topics to come: An interesting misophonia experience I had during breakfast yesterday morning, meeting up with my father's close friends last night and trying to convey to them how misophonia is affecting my life... Then, after my aunt and uncle arrive tomorrow, I have a feeling that some of my upcoming posts may be about: my uncle and I having a thoughtful discussion about the "Sound Rage" book (him having read it from a therapist's perspective while I read it from a sufferer's perspective), the experience when the three of us visit my parents' graves (my aunt is my father's sister), and then, after my aunt and uncle head back home, Monday I'll be renting a car and exploring some of the places where I grew up followed by having a light dinner meeting with the anchorman who did the news report on my father over thirty years ago. I'm sure there will be lots of experiences to share.
To be continued...
Once I got to my layover point in Atlanta, I had to book it to my next flight one concourse over. Of course, they had already started boarding by the time I got there; so again, I didn't have to deal with the nervous fidgiting of anxious passengers waiting in the boarding area. Once I got on the plane though, I noticed (through my earplugs) that the two gentlemen sitting in front of me were having a very loud, and energetic conversation. I could feel it in my gut that they'd be talking the entire 2+ hour flight to my final destination. I was sitting in a window seat and noticed that the window seat on the other side of the aisle wasn't occupied yet; so, since the boarding was slowing down to a trickle of people, I gathered my stuff and moved to the other window seat. Just as I was about to sit down, the man who's seat I took boarded the plane. I looked at him and said, "I hope swapping seats was okay with you." He replied that since we both had window seats, he didn't mind. Sure enough, the men in front of my whole seat did gab away the entire flight. Although I was able to hear them even while wearing earplugs in my new location, at least it wasn't as bad as if they were directly in front of me.
I guess you can say that I directly confronted my first trigger experience and fled from my second. I think my response to triggers is usually contingent upon how intense the trigger is, the duration of the trigger, where I am when I'm exposed to the triggers, and how comfortable I feel with asking the triggerer to stop. I think by my thinking about how to respond rather than just exploding on the spot, I'm able to tailor my reaction to the situation. So far... I'd say (with rare exception), the results of my reactions have been pretty successful.
Well, rather than write a tome of a post here, now that I know I do have access to my blog fairly easily, I'll break up my thoughts into a couple of posts (and may even do multiple posts in a day). Some of the topics to come: An interesting misophonia experience I had during breakfast yesterday morning, meeting up with my father's close friends last night and trying to convey to them how misophonia is affecting my life... Then, after my aunt and uncle arrive tomorrow, I have a feeling that some of my upcoming posts may be about: my uncle and I having a thoughtful discussion about the "Sound Rage" book (him having read it from a therapist's perspective while I read it from a sufferer's perspective), the experience when the three of us visit my parents' graves (my aunt is my father's sister), and then, after my aunt and uncle head back home, Monday I'll be renting a car and exploring some of the places where I grew up followed by having a light dinner meeting with the anchorman who did the news report on my father over thirty years ago. I'm sure there will be lots of experiences to share.
To be continued...
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