Coping Mechanisms?

[Guest guest]

Hello,

I'm brand new to this group and releived to finally know that I'm not alone in

my condition. After reading many of the posts on this site, I've noticed that no

one has mentioned any " instinctive reactions " , so to speak, to their triggers.

For example, this condition started for me around age 10 with the sound of

people sniffing. This is still by far the worst sound in the world for me. When

the problem first started I realized that I couldn't simply tell people to stop

sniffling, because for them it was perfectly normal. To " release my rage " I

began banging my fist on my desk whenever I hear the sound. However, this was

pretty noticable to everyone around me so I knew I had to develop some other way

to deal with it. Around the age of 12 I actually began smacking myself in the

ear that was closer to the sniffing sound (As if this would seem less crazy than

banging on the desk?? I was 12...). However, this too was very noticable and one

teacher even called my parents in to discuss the behavior. I was so terrified to

admit my problem, that I insisted to my parents that I had no idea what the

teacher was talking about and that she herself was a little nuts. From about

that age on I've made a loud " anti-sniffing " sound as I call it. Whenever

someone sniffs, I simply blow back out of my nose. This isn't something that I

conciously do after I hear a sniffle, it's literally instict at this point. For

some reason, when I do this the rage subsides a little. If I don't make this

sound, I feel like I will absolutely explode. The funny thing is that if someone

else were to make the same noise that I make to counter the sniffling, I would

go absolutely nuts over it and experience the strong bubbling rage feeling. I've

developed several other triggers over the years, but interestingly sniffing is

the only one that I've developed this " instinctive reaction " to. Is it possible

it's because I was so young. Also, does anyone know if this actually makes my

condition worse? Does anyone else do something similar to this??

Thanks again for creating this group. I really think it'll help me going

forward.