Mine hit me right around the time that my Raynaud’s decided to show it’s full colors (no really, my hands were fantastic colors of red, white and purple). Why? Probably because I was 14 and my hormones were raging.
Whatever reason, come awkward adolescence my hands began to shake. It was worsened when trying to hold something, particularly something that was either extraordinarily delicate or scalding. It was made even worse when there was an audience or I was nervous or embarrassed. As you can imagine, class presentations were my worst nightmare.
And needless to say, awkward adolescence just got a whole lot worse…
On really bad days my head would try to shake itself off my neck. But mostly, it was my hands, with their omnipresent jitter.
Unlike when I was diagnosed with Rheumatoid Arthritis, I knew exactly what I was in for. About half the aunts and uncles on my mom’s side have these same shakes. In fact, many people around the world do. It’s called an Essential Tremor and it can cause your hands, head or voice to shake. We don’t know why and we don’t have a cure (sound familiar?).
One aunt has a particularly bad rendition – her head never pausing. So I was filled with a sense of dread and acceptance when I noticed them in myself; I was one of the unlucky ones, stuck with the shakes and destined to have it for the rest of my life.
To my surprise, by age 16 my Familial Essential Tremor had all but disappeared. Occasionally my hands would shake a bit when I was especially nervous, but it was nothing compared to what it had been a few years earlier. People stopped pointing it out. I was ecstatic.
It’s basically been a non-issue since then. But now suddenly, at the age of 31, I seem to be a bit shakier. It’s not bad enough that it’s affecting my head, but it’s been bad enough to spill hot coffee while pouring, to have people comment and stare yet again, and for me to have flashbacks back to those rough adolescent years.
Like RA and Raynaud’s Phenomenon, there is no cure for an essential tremor. It’s just … a condition. A genetic mutation, according to the Mayo Clinic.
So, what can I do? Well, avoid caffeine, alcohol and stressful situations, for starters. But, since that’s not going to happen for me right now, I’m sticking to hoping that it’ll mysteriously disappear, the reaction to a 30-something’s hormone cycle, like it did when I was 16.
My RAD Life 