Hey everyone, I’m wondering if y’all have experienced this or similar. Somehow, tremors seem to be associated with two significant issues, alcoholism or drug addiction. I know people will maybe argue this, but I’ve seen it first hand too many times to attribute to coincidence.

Anyways, the tragic reality that bothers me the most is when I see the “shocked/pity” look after they first realize my tremors. Mine are still just in my hand so it’s very obvious to see. I work in sales and have a pretty good ability to read facial expressions and body language in general.

It starts by meeting someone for the first time. I make constant eye contact and usually see a jovial face when meeting someone new. During this introduction at some point I see their eyes drop and look at the tremors in my hand THIS is when they go through computations to determine what they are seeing. Eventually they meet my eyes again and their expressions have completely changed. I think most often the expression is shock and pity. I’m a handsome young man who looks nothing like addicts and alcoholic to others. After I’ve noticed they have now assumed me to be an addict or alcoholic, I have to introduce my disorder. My mentor taught me the best way to play it off was to bring it up early and light heartedly.

I know alcohol causes tremors in late stage alcoholism but I haven’t met many people who had tremors due to it. everyone I’ve met with tremors has a medical disorder. I wish that was the universally believed cause because I think this would happen less. Most the time these are short interactions where I notice it and don’t correct them. I suppose I should every time to start advocating for it.

And just to give a personal story that supports this is when I was doing door to door sales. I literally made 34k sale, worked with lady for hours for her to call my boss and alert him that my hands were super shaky and I might be suffering from something. She didn’t tell me anything and still bought from me but the whole time saw it as a potential problem worthy of calling my employer. If I didnt already disclose this, I could have been fired based on the alcoholic/addict trope for tremors…