Disability Corner

[CensoredAlso]

Having OCD tendancies can often make you feel depressed, because it's such a crippling thing to live with sometimes. Now I don't check the lock on my door every day or anything and I do have a pretty full life. But it's still hard worrying about things so often. You really need to learn to train your brain to not listen to the negative thoughts. Label it as a biological problem and nothing more.

If you actively try to get rid of it, that will only make it stronger. You have to learn to act as though it's not there. That brings the power back to you. It takes a long time to learn, but it's definitely worth it. Life is too short to let your own mind hold you hostage.

 

[muppet baby]

Hello everyone i was diagnosed with Cerebral Palsy at age 2, for me it has been quit a journey, the CP has affected my right side quit a bit but mostly my legs making it where i have had to where several different knee braces . The reason for the knee braces, is because, the cp caused me to have muscles that i am to tight all the time .

When i was around 6 yrs old, i had to have surgery to clip some of the tendons near my hips and then behind both knees to make some of high tone go away , before that foot cramps nightly, for a long time after that though i had to do physical therapy for about 5 years because the doctors that i went to in Dallas to have this surgery had loosed the tendons behind the right knee to much .

School was very hard as well, for that time all the way until i graduated from high school, in 1998.
The reason why high school was so hard was because of the fact that the CP damaged the right side of the brain that makes where you know grammar say like writing punctuation and such that is why some of my posts seem always run on sentences and sometimes bad spelling also sometimes very bad peculation, that the spell check can not pick up .
One other thing about school was angry as well with muscles made it really hard all my energy went into work and i really did not have much time for friends .

The really major thing that affected me most with CP is that i also had hydrolysis, (water on the brain) i was born at weight of 2 1/2 pounds, because of my birth weight the doctors said that with in days i would have to have a shunt to drain the fluid permanently, i have had to have the shunt replaced from the brain 8 times .
In 96 i had a shunt put in that caused a lot of pain because the part to drain the fluid in my stomach was put in wrong and they did not find it out that it was causing a pain problem until 2000.
Then i had it taken out and other put in more back pain until last June then they had to take it out emergency , that was the week of June 10 of 07.
that surgery was wonderful because, of the fact the back pain was gone that made me have to have a walker and forearm Cains.
Those Cains several months before the surgery i had to limit my use, of the Cains .

i am so grateful though for my life now i am having so much fun rediscovering the joy of video games, and a lot of time on the computer, with the back pain that i had for so many years i could not sit for long periods of time doing things like video games computer message boards watching long movies .

Also have joy in General the pain got really bad dunning the last year before the shunt surgery, i dove into deep depression because of the physical pain that the tubing was causing .

A time before that i had time of depression for school and being tired all the time, more often though the depression was caused by the physical pain in my back, and legs sometimes

i have learned so much though though this walk of life .

i have a few more things to tell but i am going to have to put them in another post because of the fact that my arms are geting tired and that when i work a lot on the comuter but after about 5 min i am ok .
the Cp also really caused a lot of tension in my arms but i have leaned ways to over come that .

In another post here on this thread soon i would like to tell about some lessons i have learned in this walk of my like that has been wonderful though good and bad .

This tread is so cool

thanks for reading i love this bourd so much .

 

[kermiegirl]

Well first off, I'm 15 and I have autism, but this is only mild. Here is a list of what happens to me in my daily life.

1. I have the tendency to like and hate certain people. If they are really nice to me, I can be friends with them. If they are mean or are just plain annoying, I stay away from them. I have a really great group of friends and they are really nice. The only thing that's holding me back from them was that I still have to tell them that I'm a Muppet fan - by the way, I'm the only person in my school that's a really huge Muppet fan. If I did, they might look at me strangely and say "Wow. You are such a loser." or something like that and they would ignore me for at least a day. Should I tell them or should I not? I'm getting off topic, so let's move on.

2. Whenever I say something, it always sounds confusing. For example, if I want to say "I want to have pie.", it ends up sounding like "I want to have to pie." Even when I say a simple sentence, it ends up being garbled.

3. I don't like it when people get on my nerves. I REALLY REALLY hate it! Let's imagine that I'm reading a really good book and I'm getting to the climax of the story when suddenly someone yells in my ear, "WHAT ARE YOU DOING?" This happens a few times and after a while, it's very hard to decide to either ignore it a little longer or fight with this person.

So, I guess that it. If you have comments or questions, let me know.

 

[ReneeLouvier]

Meh, kinda not sure if I should post here or not. I mean, I've done tons of rants and stuff in my club, The RHLC!...but here goes anyways!

Please don't hate me for this!

Also those who do not have the time, nor the want to read this entire post; here is the short of it:

This is what I suffer/have suffered from:
- Severe ADHD
- Mild/Moderate Cyclothymia Disorder
- Pilonidal Cyst
- Hepatitis C Virus
- Mild Anxiety/OCD Disorder
- 2 Car Accidents

Please click above links for more information courtesy of Wikipedia. Now, onto the long-winded rant from your's truely.

Well, for starters, I have ADHD. Severe ADHD...the only difference is the hyperactitivy that's associated with it, it's only mental for me. (Probably has something to do with me being raised by my loving morbidly obese parents. >_>; I kinda emulated them without meaning to, and for that fact I'm not really hyperactive physically.)

My ADHD causes me to continually kinda go in and out of this plane of consinousness (meaning I daydream, or "drift off" mentally) and it's caused me plenty of problems along my 21 year life. I fiddle with things when I get bored, and when I start to get agitiated or "revved up" I tend to bounce one of my legs very rapidly by hopping using my heel.

I'm constantly losing things, which really gets me frustrated. Like right now, I don't know where on Earth my Scooter doll is! He's probably either in my closet, or behind something in my room; which is a total mess.

Before I ramble too long, onto my cyclothymia disorder; otherwise known as "mild bipolar II disorder", also otherwise known as the basis for my being absolutely crazy from little kid till currently!

I used to take medicine for all this, but since I lost my medical insurance when I was 20, I stopped my meds, and also had to stop going to my physcologist because I couldn't afford the $85 per visit. >> That and my doc who had been with me since the 5 grade (that's more then 10 years, mind you; every month pratically till I graduated, then every other month since then.) had gotten a promotion within the last year before hand and now she's only in the office 2 half-days per freaking week! THAT IS SO FRUSTRATING! And now, currently I'm having to get a NEW physcologist. Lovely.

Sorry to get off-topic...again. This is the mind of a crazy woman who simply cannot get her mind to calm down and such. Yeah...well, not sure what caused it but for a few years I shoplifted quite a bit. Kept to the small stuff, mainly makeup; and I once stole a CD from BestBuy. >> Still have it all too; 'cept for the makeup that went rancid, cause it was old.

My anxiety/OCD disorder tends to not really surface much, except in strange circumstances. Like, no one can ever touch my books. If they want to read one of my books; that's fine. If I get it for them, if my books are out of order, I have once gone completely bat-**** insane over it. I never fully realized that it was possibly a part of my problem until I had to pull all of my books off of the bookshelf to re-put them into a new one my mother and I had constructed. That was strange, because I kept literally slapping my mother's hands away from the books so I could put them correctly into the box. Also recently it's reared it's ugly head in my working for Ryan's Steakhouse. I have the hardest time throwing away food. It's like..."people will still eat it, it's edible!" and the management keep telling me "it's Ryan's policy: if it's half-full, it's empty."

And I simply can't stand that. I just have to hide the stupid food waste bin, and not look at it, even when I'm dumping chunks of old cake/cobbler into it. I look once to make sure it's not gonna go on the floor, then I close my eyes, start scraping and then I shove the bin back underneath the prep table when I'm done.

My cyst(s) are another thing completely...they are constantly irritated; and well, they tend to make my life hard. Read more about it on the wikipedia page, it's a bit too strange to describe here.

I've been in two car accidents this past year, 2007. First accident I demolished my car Gracie; hurt my right breast so badly that I contracted a hematoma, but thank God it's gone away on it's own over time. It was on August 3? I remember the first court date was set for August 28th. The second accident was not even 4 months after this one, sometime early November. Robert (my finacee) was driving his white van; we rear-ended somebody, due to us rubbernecking at a burning piece of construction equipment. (They FINALLY picked up the charred hunk of metal about a month ago. Yay for that terrible reminder being gone.) His van was totaled, and my right wrist was injured. The jury is still out over weather I only severely sprained a tendon or if I actually lightly cracked one of the eight wrist bones; but it reacts as if it has mild arthritis now, mainly affected by changes in the weather.

My HCV is sorta a touchy subject here, I think still. But it's an easily misunderstood virus. At least for the people I've talked to at the time I was undergoing treatment for it was. A bit of back story as to why I had (I was cured after the year of treatment.) HCV. I was born premature, by two months; weighed only 2.5(?) pounds, and was 19 inches in length. Due to the many blood gas(?) tests that were administered to me; they had to give me a blood transfusion, or two. (Do not know how many transfusions I had, but I had to have had at least one.) This was in between August 1986-December 1986. They didn't have proper widespread industry-standard tests for HCV until 1992, unfortunately. Which meant I had gotten tainted blood.

{Questionable bits are whited out for your protection.}

(This is the only explantion I have been given for this from my doctors, as I have never done hard drugs [contraction from tainted needle], had never had multiple sex partners [let alone any sex period!], and to their current knowledge there is little chance of mothers passing on the disease to their children during gestation/birthing. [Though considering my birth mother's scant history, [She was an "exotic dancer" which is possibly a fancy term for "stripper"] that last one could be possible; but I would never blame her anyways, I'd use the "bad-blood transfusion" reason to begin with.])

So, how I found out is a funny story in of itself. I had planned to give blood in my Senior year of highschool; but I was sick on the day of the donation. My mother got a summer job at the Red Cross and I decided, well if I couldn't do it at school, I'd give here. So I did. They told me "in about two weeks, you'll get your donation ID card". Well, guess what came about two weeks later?

This big ol' packet came from the Red Cross, my first thought was "oh boy, they must give you little goodies whenever you first get on their lists or something!" First thing out of the packet was

"Further Information about the Hepatitis C Virus"

If my mother hadn't have already put the car in park, she probably would have driven us into one of the pine trees in our backyard! She was dumbfounded at all this. First thing I did was get more information about it. And then in Febuary of 2005 I started my year of treatment. 3 pills in the morning, 3 pills in the evening, and one subcutanous (within the fat of the body, not the muscle) injection once per week. And now after doing all this for a whole year, to this day I always dread 9pm on Tuesdays. I either dread it or I feel like I've gotta DO something important.

Well, that's about it for all of my disabilities and such. Also I severely cut myself on a glass mason jar a few days ago, and I'm currently hobbling around due to it. (The cut was between my last two toes on my left foot, 1/4 inch deep at it's deepest.) But it's healing nicely, so I'll be fine within a week or two.

 

[Mo Frackle]

Recently came to the conclusion (though I've suspected it for quite some time now, honestly) that I might have a mild case of Aspergers. But that's merely based on a self-diagnosis. I'll be visiting my doctor soon to find out for sure.

I've always struggled with social skills and developing strong friendships. I see others around me having 'normal' conversations, laughing, smiling, and having a good time. What's that secret formula that I don't know about?

In fairness, my skills have improved significantly over the last few months. I'm less anxious when around strangers, and am at least able to hold a pleasant small-talkish conversation. And I seem to develop a new friendship every few weeks.

But I still feel pressured to come up with something interesting to say.

Even though I don't always say the right thing (luckilly, I usually catch myself when that happens), and sometimes don't say anything at all - not even a simple hello to certain acquaintances, I do care a lot about other people. I just have to learn how to show that care in a normal, safe way.

I'm going to keep working at it, believe me!

Whether I have a disability or not, I'm not the least bit worried. It doesn't define who I am, it's simply a part of life that has to be dealt with.

 

[HootsytheOwl]

Multiple allergies
Seronegative Rheumatoid Arthritis
clawed and deformed fingers and toes
Hypoglycemia( without diabetes, just hypoglycemic all the time)
had a saddle embolism
had a deep vein thrombosis
have an IVC filter
have to be on Coumadin for life
Atelectasis
had Novasure ablation
herniated disks in back
taking two types of immunosuppressants, one of which has damaged my lungs
had shingles twice
pneumonia multiple times
multiple bladder and kidney infections
multiple sinus infections
bronchitis multiple times
Trouble absorbing vitamins
moderate serveity asthma
multiple mild traumatic brain injuries
one moderate severity brain injury
no peripheral vision
mild carpal tunnel both wrists
pes cavus foot deformity, uses cane and rigid shoe inserts
and other annoyances/problems ...won't list, the list is long enough already

However, I can play my guitars, draw, sing, sew, and do other things...I'm too stubborn to just let myself be an invalid. I have a metal sign of Rosie The Riveter on my wall that I look at when I feel down. Like Rosie says... "WE CAN DO IT!" and whenever anyone here is having a particularly bad day, remember Rosie. *hugggs*

Your friend,
Kitt =^.^=

 

[D'Snowth]

Recently came to the conclusion (though I've suspected it for quite some time now, honestly) that I might have a mild case of Aspergers. But that's merely based on a self-diagnosis.

I've often wondered the same thing about myself, though not for the same reasons you've mentioned, but rather because of how habitual and ritualistic I am: I have all kinds of personal little rituals and routines throughout the year that I keep doing year after year, they must never be changed, though some may drop off after a while and new ones may be added . . . just for example, there's certain things I like to watch, read, listen to at certain times of the year. Of course, it just be my plain insanity.

Other than that, while I don't have any actual disability, I do have a birth defect in my back: the lower half of my spine curves inward, much like a woman's spine does, so that does limit physical activities, such as heavy lifting, quite a bit. Not sure if I can be legally disabled because of it.

 

[MikaelaMuppet]

Autism

ADD

Anxiety

OCD

 

[TheWeirdoGirl]

Like Mo, I'm pretty sure I have Asperger's or some kind of mild Autism. My mom suggested I might have it a few years ago, but at first I denied it because I was nothing like the autistic people I'd worked with at camps and stuff. But I started doing my own research and eventually realized there's a very good chance that I do have it. I've always had trouble making friends and knowing how to interact with people (although I think I've gotten a lot better in the past couple years). I have social anxiety too. It's funny, I'm a musician and hardly ever get nervous anymore about performing on stage, but answering a question in class or having a conversation with someone I don't know well can make me nauseus.

I also have a disorder called Trichotillomania, which is a BFRB (body-focused repetitive behavior) that basically causes me to pull out my own hair on impulse, sometimes without me even realizing I'm doing it. I've had it since I was about 10 or 11, and I pull mostly from my scalp, but also from pretty much anywhere there's hair on my body (except my legs and face).

I used to think it was caused by stress, but now a lot of things trigger it. Stress, happiness, excitement, boredom, even just needing something to do with my hands. I've probably pulled at least 10 hairs just while writing this post. I don't have any bald spots on my head, but my hair looks so ragged and unhealthy and I hate it. I want to stop, but it's just not that simple. The best way I can describe it is that it's like holding your breath. You can do it for a little while, but your need to breathe increases and eventually you have to take a breath or you'll die. With Trichotillomania (or trich), the impulses just build and get harder and harder to resist until you feel like you can't anymore. I'm frustrated because no trick or method I've found has really helped much. All I can do is try to keep my hands away from my hair whenever I feel the urge. It's an ongoing battle, but I'm determined to win somehow.

 

[Mo Frackle]

Like Mo, I'm pretty sure I have Asperger's or some kind of mild Autism. My mom suggested I might have it a few years ago, but at first I denied it because I was nothing like the autistic people I'd worked with at camps and stuff. But I started doing my own research and eventually realized there's a very good chance that I do have it. I've always had trouble making friends and knowing how to interact with people (although I think I've gotten a lot better in the past couple years). I have social anxiety too. It's funny, I'm a musician and hardly ever get nervous anymore about performing on stage, but answering a question in class or having a conversation with someone I don't know well can make me nauseus.

I also have a disorder called Trichotillomania, which is a BFRB (body-focused repetitive behavior) that basically causes me to pull out my own hair on impulse, sometimes without me even realizing I'm doing it. I've had it since I was about 10 or 11, and I pull mostly from my scalp, but also from pretty much anywhere there's hair on my body (except my legs and face).

I used to think it was caused by stress, but now a lot of things trigger it. Stress, happiness, excitement, boredom, even just needing something to do with my hands. I've probably pulled at least 10 hairs just while writing this post. I don't have any bald spots on my head, but my hair looks so ragged and unhealthy and I hate it. I want to stop, but it's just not that simple. The best way I can describe it is that it's like holding your breath. You can do it for a little while, but your need to breathe increases and eventually you have to take a breath or you'll die. With Trichotillomania (or trich), the impulses just build and get harder and harder to resist until you feel like you can't anymore. I'm frustrated because no trick or method I've found has really helped much. All I can do is try to keep my hands away from my hair whenever I feel the urge. It's an ongoing battle, but I'm determined to win somehow.

Weird, I have the same symptoms. Longtime SA sufferer (though like you, I've improved in the last few years). Also have Trichotillomania, though I've started making the effort to quit recently.