Sen. Susan Collins recently revealed that for decades she has had a condition called an essential tremor. She made the disclosure after questions arose about her head and hands trembling in a campaign video, leading to speculation that the 73-year-old Republican lawmaker was in declining health.
“I have had it for the entire time that I have served in the United States Senate,” said Collins, who has represented Maine in the upper chamber since 1997, in a statement. She described the essential tremor as “inconvenient at times, but that’s all,” and said it has no impact on her ability to do her job. She has never missed a Senate floor vote during her nearly three decades in office.
Collins is facing 41-year-old Democrat Graham Platner in what is shaping up to be one of the most contentious races going into the midterm elections in November. The winner may determine which party controls the Senate for the remainder of Donald Trump’s presidency.
Platner, a U.S. Army and Marine Corps veteran, has been open about having post-traumatic stress disorder, hearing loss and damage to his knees and back stemming from his overseas tours. There has been less discussion about how his disability may impact his fitness to serve. Instead, Platner has treated it as an asset to his campaign, connecting the care he has received through the Department of Veterans Affairs to his support for “Medicare for all” in speeches and campaign statements.
The difference in how Platner and Collins have named or discussed (or not) their disabilities and how they are perceived can be attributed to a number of factors, according to Suzanne Chod, a professor of political science at North Central College who focuses on women in American politics. In particular, she emphasized gender, age and veteran status as reasons Collins may have been more reticent to disclose her condition or to label it as a disability.
“A woman in office is already seen as less authoritative, as less qualified,” Chod told The 19th.
Collins’ office declined The 19th’s request to explain why she did not disclose her essential tremor earlier.
“It would make sense that she wouldn’t disclose it, since it doesn’t affect her job. And now we see the way that it might be spun about: ‘Was she ever qualified? Can we even trust her?’” Chod said.
Despite being common, essential tremors are not widely known about. In fact, essential tremors are the most common movement disorder in the United States, according to the Cleveland Clinic. They cause a person’s hands and sometimes head to shake when they move. There are a few famous people who have discussed having an essential tremor.
“People have misunderstood it because they assume it is Parkinson’s. But Parkinson’s is a devastating disease,” actress Katharine Hepburn said in a 1983 interview “Mine is just an irritation.”
Although Collins used “benign” to describe her own condition, the term is no longer used by professionals, who originally used it to differentiate an essential tremor from Parkinson’s disease, a condition that also causes shaking, but that gets considerably worse over time. Kim Gorgens, a neuropsychiatrist who teaches at the University of Denver, told The 19th that professionals have stopped using it because an essential tremor doesn’t feel benign to some of the people who have it.
“Depending on how severe the tremor is, it can be pretty disabling,” Gorgens said. She also emphasized that many people with an essential tremor lead long, productive lives and that the condition does not cause cognitive impairment or decline.
The 19th spoke with women across the country who have the same condition as Collins. Though some said that their tremor had imposed limitations, all agreed that the diagnosis should not be used to undermine the senator’s political career.
Lauren Aldrich, 43, is an artist living in Snohomish, Washington. She recently designed the posters for the upcoming Snohomish Pride Festival.
Aldrich first noticed her tremor when she was in her 20s. She was working as a waiter and drinking too much. She assumed that when she stopped drinking, the tremor would stop too. That was not the case.
Aldrich’s tremor frightened her; she thought perhaps she had early-onset Parkinson’s disease. Her father had died from Parkinson’s and his final years had not been easy. A neurologist told her that she had essential tremor and that it was nothing to worry about. Now, Aldrich mostly finds it annoying.
“A lot of people assume that I’m nervous, but I’m usually just fine,” she said. “I’m just living my life.”
She struggles with cutting vegetables and opening jars, but not with her work. For Aldrich, the hardest part is the way the tremor makes some people perceive her as anxious or weak. She suspects Collins’ reluctance to disclose may come from a similar place.
“You can have a tremor in your hands and be fine at your job,” she said.
Nancy Parker Lemmons, 74, lives in Sikeston, Missouri. Her parents were farmers, like many in the area. Before Lemmons retired in 2013, she was a social worker for people in hospice. She left the job six months after losing her husband — what she saw every day reminded her too much of when he was dying.
Lemmons first noticed her tremor decades ago, but only got diagnosed last year.
“I was fixing to turn on my computer, put my hands on my keyboard, and my hands were just shaking uncontrollably. It kind of freaked me out,” Lemmons said. The doctor she saw back then was dismissive, telling her she didn’t shake more than anybody else.
Lemmons’ tremor has worsened with age. She had hoped to spend her retirement painting and crafting, but has had to adjust her expectations. She struggles to hold a paintbrush, and the last time she tried to sew something for her granddaughter, she ended up stabbing herself accidentally multiple times. She no longer wears eyeliner.
However, Lemmons said she bristles at the idea that an essential tremor means someone is any less competent to lead. She thinks it is fair to be concerned about the age of a politician, but not because of a tremor.
“It doesn’t affect your cognitive ability. It just limits some things I’m able to do,” Lemmons said.
Linda Barbee, 79, lives in Portland, Oregon. Her essential tremor is hereditary — her father had it and his father had it. She first noticed it when she was a teenager, while dissecting a frog in biology class. Her hands shook too much to do the first step.
Barbee worked as a physical therapist for 43 years. She retired over a decade ago — but, she said, not because of the tremor.
“I was old and I was ready to do it,” she said.
When she was still working, the most difficult part of her tremor was the assumptions people made about her. Like many with her condition, Barbee’s tremor worsens with stress.
“When I am in a stressful situation, in a business situation where I need to be professional, is when I most often look like I’m doing a jig, and that’s embarrassing,” she said. People assume she is on drugs, extremely anxious or worse.
Barbee struggles with buttons and putting on earrings. She stopped putting on makeup years ago because she struggled to apply it without smearing it.
“I figure I don’t need it anyway,” she said.
While these issues are challenging for Barbee, the hardest part of her tremor is the way other people treat her when she tries to sign documents or do paperwork at government offices or the bank.
“People start calling me ‘honey.’ I’m not anybody’s honey. They talk down to me. They start treating me like I’m a child because my hands are shaking and they think I’m incapable of filling out a form or following directions,” she said. She said she feels that women with disabilities tend to get less grace than men.
“We make other assumptions about abilities and strengths because someone is a woman, and then start subtracting from there because of a perceived disability,” Barbee said.
While Barbee understands why Collins may have been reluctant to disclose, she feels that disclosure may have prevented some assumptions.
“All we’re doing really is making life difficult for ourselves if we don’t let people know what’s going on,” she said.