My husband has worked in sales his entire career. Talking and presenting to customers is part of his everyday work functions. As a salesman, he wants to project confidence to his customers about his product and his presentation helps instill that confidence. A nervous salesman definitely doesn’t do as well as a confident salesman. One of the classic signs of nervousness is shaking.
My husband shakes. He has no control over it.
My husband knows the product he sells like the back of his hand. Except the back of his hand is shaking too. As his shaking grew more noticeable he started to grow concerned. He can recall that when he was young his maternal grandfather’s hands shook but didn’t know of any diagnosis.
My husband was diagnosed with Essential Tremor (ET for short) shortly before his 30th birthday. The most common way Essential Tremor presents itself is with shaking hands so when an individual starts to presents symptoms people minds immediately jump to Parkinson’s disease. ET and Parkinson’s disease are not related. There are other ways ET presents itself including a shaking head or voice. ET is actually one of the most common neurological disorders and the most common movement disorder.
ET progresses with age and over the last decade, my husband’s tremors have gone from barely noticeable to quite evident, especially if you see him holding an object such as a piece of paper or trying to take a picture with his phone. He tried medication to help but ultimately didn’t like the risk associated with the medication and no longer takes it.
The now noticeable shake hasn’t gone unnoticed with customers. He regularly has customers telling him he doesn’t need to be nervous. When they see his shaking they assume nervousness not considering other explanations. My husband now often starts out his meetings with new customers explaining his tremors to them since it became such regular disruption to his pitch.
More recently researchers have been discovering ET is a lot more complex than they ever thought and impacts a person with ET in different ways aside from the shaking. Continued studies of this disorder may bring new treatments, understanding and awareness to it. Until then my husband will have to continue battling perceptions of his shaking while building awareness of his disorder.
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https://pixabay.com/en/shaking-hands-handshake-hands-3091906/