Makereta Brown
I have had Essential Tremor since I was in my teens. Essential Tremor (ET) causes parts of the body to shake when you are doing an activity. As opposed to a Parkinsons tremor, the tremor associated with ET goes away when the body is at rest. In New Zealand, ET is thought to affect 1-5% of the population. My tremor primarily affects muscles in my right fore, middle and ring fingers. The fine motor control in my dominant hand has been deteriorating for decades.
I was top of English in Year 13, but I botched my end of year internal. On that day, for the first time, my writing hand would not hold the pen. I remember having to grip my writing hand with the other hand just to hold the pen steady. I didn’t finish the questions in the exam because I ran out of time. I put that first experience down to stress. That month I had started working with a counsellor. Eventually, the decades revealed that the incremental physical destabilisation was not caused by childhood sexual abuse or adoption issues. Emotional turmoil acts upon ET in the way a speaker amplifies feedback. While not creating the physical condition in itself, stress can certainly intensify the shaking impulses when an individual’s cerebellum, thalamus, and motor cortex circuits happen to be incorrectly rigged for smooth precise movement.
I learned to work around the nuisance somewhat. Most sufferers are diagnosed with ET in their 40s or later, but a few of us develop the condition when very young. [Read more…] about The Thief: My experience of Essential Tremor