A question for those with a disability

[shatter eyes]

I would accept being called nuts.. crazy...psycho so i can bite them and say sorry i am nuts.

Highly flammable?
Fragile hand with care?
Beautifully broken?

I prefer to be called a sweetheart with special sensitive needs.

I hate labels. We are not items to be arranged on the shelves of society.

hungry?? I got AssBurgers.

The words used are not as important as the attitude and behaviour of the person using them.

♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡

 

[biaaw677]

I don't want to tell people how I got this way... it's personal & sometimes when I am asked I say bluntly "Is it going to change your life if you know the answer?'. I know it's rude but really how often does one see somebody with a guide dog being bluntly asked by a stranger are you blind, what's the dog for or how did you get blind

I have quite extensive awareness of people who have visual impairment. You would be surprised about just how many are asked the daft questions you refer to. In general the Public are quite ignorant and naive surrounding disability awareness; whether it involves visual impairment, hearing loss, physical disability, learning difficulties/disabilities or mental health conditions.

It is an invasion of privacy for anybody who is not already a close contact of a disabled person or a relevant medic to ask questions about what caused or is the actual disability a person has. Okay so employers and services might find it helpful to know how they can adapt their places/services to accommodate your needs, but that does not mean that you have to divulge the detail of the origins of your PTSD or CPTSD trauma.

An example of a disability related adaption that might be relevant might surround a PTSD/CPTSD sufferer waiting in queues or visiting a specific place where they don't feel safe due to the Public they have to mix with - just a thought, I'm sure everybody on this site has their own trauma related triggers of their symptoms.

 

[New]

It is the inability to overcome some of the impairments and handicaps that makes us people with

This!! Exactly these words!

 

[Friday]

I have quite extensive awareness of people who have visual impairment. You would be surprised about just how many are asked the daft questions you refer to

My son was in a wheelchair for a time when he was 9/10. His wide eyed innocent eye-batting (such a flirt, he has ALWAYS been such a flirt) answers to people’s questions never failed to crack me up.

Why are you in a wheelchair

- They haven’t invented jet packs, yet.
- Submarines aren’t really practical
- I’m saving up for a chariot.
- The ambulance was too loud and flashy.
- My mom has munchausens by proxy (no lie! OMFG :banghead: )
- Walking’s for losers.
- You wanna be cool? You need wheels. Chicks dig wheels.
- I stole it, so I figure I should get some use out of it, before the cops nab me. (This one invariably leapt into attempts to get the person to agree to committing various improbable crimes with him. The alternate version of this one, was that he was using it to hide from the cops. He usually broke this one out when speaking with off duty police who lived in the neighbourhood... which had them rolling. )

He only ever answered the question straight was for doctors. At which point he’d rattle off his diagnoses. Sometimes. Other times? Well. Kids who live in a hospital pick up all sorts of medical jargon. He had one 3rd year resident actually believing he had polio for several hours. :facepalm: Kiddo. Stop screwing with the medical students.

 

[scout86]

Hubby does not really feel like a person who is hard of hearing, he just feels like a person who happens to be hard of hearing but it is not his identity

I would venture to guess that most people with any sort of disability would like to be thought of just like you think of your husband with his hearing problem. My first choice would be that you called me "Scout".

 

[Deleted member 487]

Would you better like to be called „a person with a disability“ or a „disabled person“ or...

Hi! I'm "me". My impairments are not visually available, so don't sweat it.

 

[biaaw677]

My son was in a wheelchair for a time when he was 9/10. His wide eyed innocent eye-batting (such a flirt...

Your son's quips in response to intrusive questions are very common from many physically handicapped people. The problem here, where mental health is the issue, seems to lie within the individual PTSD/CPTSD victim/sufferer. It is likely our hypersensitivity, hyperarousal and hypervigilence symptoms that drives the way we perceive the curiosity questions that come from the Public. On top of this it seems to be self-denial surrounding recognising that being victim of trauma injuries leaves impairments and handicaps that make us people with disability.

If you are attacked on a train or injured in a train crash, then you are quite validly apprehensive about future train journeys. If you are abused as a child by an adult you quite validly have apprehension concerning contact with other adults.

How we overcome the impairments and handicaps the attack, crash or abuse cause does not remove the disability, what removes the disability is treatment that cures the disability rather than treatment that optimises and rehabilitates us for our ongoing life. As I see it, in the field of CPTSD the greatest likelihood is that the disability is lifelong, although with PTSD maybe cure is possible.

We must accept who we are, the good and the bad points, our abilities and our disabilities. Yes we are first and foremost individual persons.

 

[Deleted member 541]

Had a surgeon say to me once when I joked with him that I was, “crazier than a shithouse rat on roller skates” He wasn’t far off, but he was the one that lost his license to practice in my state cause he ended up having a total breakdown.

 

[katz]

I have a hard time even calling PTSD a "disability" (on myself only). It's almost like I'm taking a label that belongs on someone else that is hurt worse then me. Someone who has a disability, one that can be seen. I don't deserve to have the use of this word on myself. If I were to say that I had a disability, I would feel like I was just asking for sympathy for myself. And, not giving respect to the people who need/use it.

For example, I wouldn't be able to take a handicap parking spot, even if I was using crutches. I would consider myself able to walk and give it to someone who was in a wheelchair.

 

[Changing4Best]

My disability is a bacterial infection called Lyme Disease that never totally goes away. It causes things like fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue syndrome. I can never donate blood, for instance, or whoever received it would get the Lyme. I could say that I am "wounded" by this thing. It wounds my mental health too, because it causes mood swings. However, I think I would not like to be called anything at all! I would rather be well and not have to deal with this at all. I am one of the walking people, whose "disability" is not evident. But! If I have to be called anything at all, let it simply be a Lyme Disease patient. Because that is what I am.

 

[EveHarrington]

I have a hard time even calling PTSD a "disability" (on myself only). It's almost like I'm taking a label...

If you were on crutches you could get a temporary handicapped placard for your car.

 

[Mee]

I think of wounded as physical injury .

I have a physical illness and just try not to refer to it and hide it as much as possible. There are times this is not practical. These days I would rather joke about it. Or be simply truthful. It is a disability as it ‘dis Ables’. Me from doing what I would other wise do. I feel the same about ptsd. It is dis abling my life, it is not something that can me snapped out of. I do feel I should have ability to prosecute the person who inflicted me with this, as if it were a physical wound. Shrug. Ptsd has more akin to injury / wound than my physical health disability I think.