Heh, epileptic fish, that's a pretty good description. :P
I guess I've made some jokes about "Shaken, not stirred" and stuff like that, but mostly I think my friends and family have grown used to ignoring my shaking and hardly notice any more.
Also, I'm very oblivious to my surroundings, so maybe people are looking without me noticing, but what I don't know can't hurt me.

For work I give newborns their hearing screens and if I don't say something first to make light of it parents usually ask me if I need orange juice or have low blood sugar. I usually say, "I'm not nervous, I have hand tremors. No worries though! I don't give shots!" Usually parents then laugh and don't worry about it.

I have a couple friends who will be shaky after a few cups of coffee or a drinking binge (during college) and then say something like "Looks like I've been around you too much." I think most people close to us mean well and don't know that some comments can be hurtful or cause a sting of pain for a moment because it makes me think about things I can't do or that there is something different about me. It's easy to make light of it to get people to move on from talking about it but I feel like it makes me almost feel worse about it. I don't know if that's helpful or not but that's my experience.

Charlie: Yeah xD I make that joke too. Turns out, I was a GREAT barrista for that same reason. People laughed with me, and I LOVED to make the drinks. The smell of coffee all day long made everything better. :3 Coffee is my comfort cup. And I like my epileptic fish analogy too. :D

Lavaliere: I understand that. I was like that for years. I would make the jokes, but whenever someone else said something It would actually hurt. There are certain things, still, that really DO hurt my feelings. The "I've been around you too much" comments still hurt. Kinda makes me wonder if people legitimately think that what we have is contagious. It's not a good feeling to be singled out for it. I was all through high school, so I became really reserved with 90% of the population. During that time I also became severely depressed. It wasn't good. I know this makes me sound kinda like a hack, but... I decided recently, and I sincerely mean recently, that I had the choice of how I felt. I could take this all in stride and handle this stuff a lot better than anyone could expect of me, or I could become depressed again. Honestly, I don't see in the middle ground. For others, it's definitely possible.

Aubrey: I'm a bit of a jokester by nature. I can't stand having peo0ple feel sorry for me so I usually make light of the things I'm dealing with. I was hit by a car about six years ago and I'm still dealing with Post Trauma Concussion Symdrome, so I'll make fun of that. The accident especially, I had 8hrs of facial surgery and the doctors name was Dr. Carpenter I was not awake during surgery but in the follow up I told him: You spent 8 hous of surgery on my face the least you could have done was given my wife a Brad Pitt lookalike instead of sending this sorry ass thing back to her. It always gets a laugh out of everyone even thew good Dr..

With my tremors In tell everyone that my wife doesn't need any battery implements when we go away for the weekend. I also tell some people, mostly guys that I really enjoy myself when I take a leak. I hope these descriptions don't offend anyone, that was not intended. The family joke is that I'm the team handicap when we play pictionary. I could go on and on, but that's how I treat these situations. I;'ve had situations where my wife and I go out to eat and it's very stressful because I spill food everywhere, sometime it's too much and I completely give up after awhile., and I'm done. I try to use humor in everything, people probably think I'm a little off the wall because of my sense of humor, but that's who I am.

Essential Tremor manifests itself in the hands and feet when they are being used, like writing or eating for the hands, and driving a car for the feet. So, is it possible that you don't have ET?
I've been suffering with it for 30 or so years, never took anything to slow it down and it has progressed from my hands down to my feet, but only when those limbs are called upon to do something. Before this support group, I had never heard of ET being a constant motion. Perhaps there are different degrees of infection.

I've heard loads of jokes already but everyone I know is a jokester! :D No one has laughed specifically at my shakes... except my 4 year old who says "mommy! you say no to everything!" which is funny :)

here's a few... which may be offensive to some so please... don't take offense. Just sharing and I don't mean to offend!!

When I told one of my best friends (who's gay) and I haven't actually seen in person in 5 years "Girl! Do you know what that means for your hubs??? He's so lucky!".... yea, he's dirty. I think the implication is obvious. :P

When I told my mom... before and after diagnosis 'you've "got the hippy hippy shaaakes"... it's an old song for those that don't know and we sing it accordingly.

My husband "it's okay honey... there's lots of ways we can put that to good use!"... he's got jokes :)

Lots and lots of good jokes to be had by all. Sometimes it can be somewhat hurtful but it's just a way to handle it. I laugh at myself and they laugh with me. :)

Lol I hear ya! i always try to make light of the the tremor situation because well it sucks. I have really bad trunk tremors which means my body just rocks back and forth without me noticing.So my sister just had a baby and one day she wouldnt fall asleep . I told her to hand her right over to me she'll knock out. People are constantly starring at me but eh i just ignore it. Some people are crazy enough to say hey your hands are shaking or your rocking then to be like hey you got a booger in your nose lol