Thursday, August 2, 2012

Not all disabilities are visible,and not everyone with ones needs a wheelchair.

I've been told a couple times lately that I'm not disabled.When I've been told this they mean they don't see it in the work,not so much that I don't actually have one.This is coming from people who know I have hydrocephalus and someone who doesn't.The first time I was kind of offended because my first thought that my "disability" doesn't actually exist.Then later on he mentioned why he thinks that,and even if he still doesn't understand how it effects me I still respect him for it a lot more than people who think the opposite of me.My disability is invisible technically compared to others,meaning that it doesn't effect me physically as much as others.A example of this is that I'm not in a wheelchair and unless people don't know me or are to ignorant to get over stuff like my speech impediment than people know that I don't have a intellectual disability The reason I ended up staying in special ed classes wasn't because I wasn't smart enough to take certain classes with everyone else.It was because I couldn't keep organized at all and didn't know why,and my memory failed me when it came to remembering to do homework.When I did remembered I struggled to remember what I had studied the night before when taking the test.It wasn't limited to these problems but most of it I know now is directly related to having a brain injury.

My disability is hydrocephalus and it's considered that because of the brain injury and condition itself,and everything that may or may result of it.Rather it's actual learning disabilities or just the side effects of brain injury.It's also considered a disability because of the pain it causes,and even if you can't believe it surgery doesn't "fix" it every time or even a option.Everyone has experienced pain and most have had migraines or at least headaches.Think of how it effects you and imagine how it effects people who have to deal with it on a constant basis,not just with hydrocephalus or other neurological conditions but with anyone who has conditions that have to do with constant pain.It isn't always obvious and a lot of the time daily routines can still be done,but that doesn't mean that it's doesn't make things a lot harder.

I've been working hard to overcome all the side effects of my brain injury and anyone who has known me for a long time,knows how much I've struggled.Rather or not they know what causes it,it's always been a part of my life in every way.It's not something that's just not going to go away and I've had to deal with certain things like worse again like my speech impediment,and if/when I need surgeries again than it will mean I would have to re-learn things again each time.With a lot of the side effects like organization skills I've improved a lot and you don't always notice it as much if you look at my work area compared to what my backpack looked like in high school.With others like short term memory loss I've learned to hide more than I use to.If you look at the work of others and look at mine then you won't always be able to tell I'm the disabled one.But also a lot of people don't try when it comes to things like that because they don't think it really matters,but with people like me we've been working hard to be "normal" our whole lives or starting when we became disabled.So remember that not disabilities are visible,and not everyone with one needs a wheelchair,thanks for reading.

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