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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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Workplace isolation

10/2/2013

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So, yesterday I spoke with the insurance company for the driver who hit me a couple of months ago and found myself in an interesting conundrum...

We're trying to work out a settlement and I tried to convey that the accident did more than just the body damage to my car and my shoulder injury... particularly since I wound up being over 2 hours late to work every day for two weeks after the accident because the Tramadol pain killer that the doctor put me on made it next to impossible to wake up (let alone function) in the mornings. In order for them to compensate me for the reprocussions though, the insurance representative needed documentation. I explained that I'm salaried, so it's not like my company docked my pay (I always made up the time by working late). I thought I could ask my supervisor to write a note stating how I came late to work all those days and couldn't lift heavy objects, and that's where I hit the snag...

Since I relocated my workspace back in January to lessen the number of misophonia triggers around me, I'm now in an isolated area  just up the steps one floor away from my supervisor; so he said he was not even aware of my coming in late all those days. In fact, he wasn't aware that I had also restricted myself from doing any heavy lifting too (e.g. light fixture samples). I realized that I was like an injured bird in the wild... Injured birds try not to appear sick, so that they don't become a target for predators. As much as I was in pain and altered my regular way of doing things after the accident, I didn't want to let on that I was suffering for fear my employer might think I can't do my job. (Reminds me when I was hesitant to even bring up my misophonia to my employer...) What made matters worse is that I'm in an area right behind the reception area, so other than the receptionist, no one else knew I was coming in late.

My supervisor said that I should speak to HR to see if there was something the firm could do, but I thought to myself, "The last thing I want to do is draw more attention to the fact that I came in 2 hours late every day for two weeks." As bummed as I am that I have no way to prove to the insurance company that the medication made it so hard to function for so long, I like the isolation of my current workspace location and I'm not going to jeopardize my job just to try to get a little more compensation from the insurance company. Hopefully, the information in the doctor's report will be sufficient. (I spoke with the nurse this morning and they have on record that I called their office on multiple days asking to get off the pain killer because it was making it difficult to wake up in the mornings.)

Now if I can just get the receptionist to put fewer treats with noisy, crinkley wrappers in her candy bowl...

On another note...  This morning I discovered a SECOND mattress company is now including whistling in the background of their morning commercials. What was worse was that a couple of times, that commercial was back to back with the first mattress company's commercial with the "Don't Worry, Be Happy" song whistled in the background. What is it with mattress companies and whistling? Whistling is the LAST thing I'd consider to be a relaxing "sleepy time" background sound. Why don't they ever use soothing instrumental music, like in day spas?

It inspired me to update the current poll question. Check it out on the main SenseHaven.com page.
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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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