Some Disabilities Are Invisible!
Some disabilities are invisible to the eye!
Please don't assume - that makes an ass of u and me!
Pain can't be seen but it can disable someone just as much as any other disability.
Imagine having tooth ache in your leg or having bee stings all over your back.
I encounter this all the time, People see my daughter and think that her behavior is aweful but they have no clue that she has a disability.
They just stare and make comments.
I have had cards made from vista print explianing her disabilty and I had them out to people who stare and gawk at her.
It is the only tool in my arsenal right now. lol
@NancySV1 It's disgusting to me that people would stare and gawk at a disabled child, or anyone with a disability. When my disability WAS visible I experienced it quite a bit myself, and people just being downright condescending and rude to me. Even when they meant well, with comments like "it's so great you're out doing things!" "You're so brave!" "Good for you for not letting the disability define you!" Yeah, great, thank you random stranger for coming up and treating me like the Elephant Man. What does a disabled person love more than being thought of as a freak show act? Anyway, sarcasm aside, I'm really sorry you and your daughter have to put up with that. I think it's repulsive, even if I hadn't experienced it myself it would have disgusted me.
@tluper6491
Lol, yeah, I've had that happen a time or two, it's kind of like, bite me, I'm getting groceries, just like anyone else, I'm not here to inspire you!
@NancySV1 Do you find the cards to be helpful?
Lupus ,pulmonary hypertension, and low blood platelets. Also finding Drs who wish to operate on you?
mental illness
@MistyMagic Thank you for this. As someone with brain damage and highly intelligent no one takes me seriously when I'm having a bad day or struggling with a task that's affected.
@Axalotal
Welome!! Yes I understand what you are saying , I hope you enjoy the community :)
@MistyMagic
Thank you.
Two of my issues is memory recall and slow processing speeds.
Case in point, I'm part of a group that has proved that the sun triggers earthquakes and that electrical signals can be used to forecast their location.
We discovered what was the first relationship between solar magnetic fields and earthquakes. Using only 12% of the fault lines as our test zones, since 2016 we have predicted nearly all the magnitude 5 or higher earthquakes.
The paper was co-authored with people from Ohio State and NASA. And since has been peer-reviewed, copied, cited over 100 times, and sough by scientist around the world.
In 2017 NASA and ETH Zurich announced they would start using magnetic anomalies for pre seismic forecasting.
This year, China and Italy launched the SEISMO electromagnetic satellite which will track electromagnetic anomalies before earthquakes.
We have also studied the coronal hole typhoon connection. This year one of our team members won the National Science Championship for this exact study.
We also predicted that science would not be able to find dark matter because it doesn't exist.
My point is I'm relatively smart and accomplished. Because of this, people don't believe me when I tell them I have brain damage. Even after I drop over 100 pages of medical documentation, they act like it's made up or somehow wrong. One of my favourite responses is I'm overreacting, everyone has memory problems. This infuriates me.
Yet, because I struggle to form my thoughts and without notes get numbers mixed up. Because of this friends and family constantly tell me I'm stupid, should get a "real" job and talk down to me as if I'm three and dismiss any ideas or arguments when having a discussion.
I'm in my 40's now, so grade and middle school were different. I nearly failed both, but now have been very successful in cutting-edge scientific discoveries in an array of fields.
Back in grade school, I was labelled "special needs" and spent two hours a day on penmanship; I'm a messy writer. As it turns out that's because my fine motor skills are impacted by my brain damage.
In high school, I skipped a lot of classes and was labelled a troublemaker. One teacher even accused me of plagiarism. Their reasoning was if I'm not attending class there is no way I could hand in such great work. As it turned out, I was writing nine peoples assignments; it paid well for easy work, if anything they should have been the ones getting in trouble.
The reason I wasn't showing up to class was I couldn't find my locker. They all looked the same. If I could find my locker, I couldn't remember my combination. I was being treated by teachers and admin as if I was a worthless nobody, a pest that didn't deserve to be there. There are many other stories, but this post is getting fairly long.
My overall point is, yes having invisible disabilities is hard but don't give up on your dreams. Once you find what you're good at, you will be successful. It's important to take advantage of help, but do not use it as a crutch.
I am successful, but it still is painful knowing people treat me as something I'm not.
What's hardest on me the most is myself. If my brain were "normal", I would be a genius and be much better at socializing. Most days I feel like a fraud. Because I'm damaged, I shouldn't be successful or able to grasp concepts that most people can't. Somehow because I can't explain myself, it seems like I don't know what I'm talking about, as if I'm not smart but a parrot.
In short, I feel like a failure because space agencies around the world use research I worked on, yet family and friends constantly treat me as if I don't know anything and imply the space agencies are wrong to use the reasearch we did as a team.
@Axalotal
Thank-you for writing such a long and informative reply. I do understand a little bit of what you are saying. I will add my son is dyslexic and has messy writing, spells words backward and has a bad short term memory, but, he is a successful computer programmer, he just 'sees' and understand in a different way, from being branded an idiot in school to creating complicated programmes!
I am really interested in your research too! Well done, the projects sounds great!
@MistyMagic
Thanks for the reply. I just sort of rambled out a lot of pent up baggage.
It always makes me smile when I hear stories of people; like your son, who can overcome challenges and conquer the world.
@MistyMagic
that sounds painful
This is soo true. I have fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue syndrome I also get disability because of it, but some people have accused me of faking it. Considering how horrendous the pain is, I wish I was faking
@K87 they can be very painful, and I understand that people can't see them whch is frustrating having to explain all the time.
@MistyMagic
I think the worst part though, is all of the health issues that accompany fibromyalgia. I see so many different doctors for so many different things that I honestly can't even tell you what a few look like. I have trouble keeping track of them.
@MistyMagic
Invisible disabilities are misunderstood.
@All This is one of my favorite posts, it says so much and so I wanted to bring this up again. How are you today?
Is your disability invisible?
How does it make you feel when others ignore your condition?
Listening - One Step At A Time!
@MistyMagic. I have an invisible disability. It’s very frustrating when people ignore or don’t believe me, especially medical doctors and other health professionals!
@MistyMagic Very true. I was gonna post in here with the headline "disability doesn't have a 'look'"...you saved me the work. Thank you.
@slowdecline48 You can still post! The more the merrier when it comes to bringing this to people's attention?
Listening - One Step At A Time!
@MistyMagic Doing it now would be repetitive...I'll wait a few weeks. Then if I still remember, mine will go up once everyone else has forgotten this one.
Thank you for bringing awareness!
I have chronic pain, and even some health care professionals don't acknowledge it! I hope more people will realize this.
@pinkLion9840 That sucks, sometimes pain cannot be measured on a scale from one to ten, can it? Pain is something that we each need to find a way to cope with. My Dad used to say " Pain is a friend, it tells you when something is wrong!" But when the pain becomes chronic, and we have had medical attention and treatment then we need to find ways to cope.
What do you find helps you?
Listening - One Step At A Time!
I think the key part of coping with disabilities is to talk about it, but also keep it balanced.
For the longest time, when I first got my diagnosis, I didn't talk about it.
Now when I have gotten older I finally started opening up about it.
Most people didn't even know about my disability.
However I found, that sometimes I didn't want to talk about it, and just be allowed to live my life as a "normal" person.
People pity disabled people, and it can seem degrading, I'm not all about that.
I think building a community of supportive people is the best thing I could have done for myself.
