What would you like people to know about your disability?

Everyone has their own disability. Even misses perfect across the road has her problems.I have a mental sickness but it does not get me down. Sometimes God lets us suffer a bit beacuse it keeps us humble and dependant on Him.

I wish they knew more about it, so they'd realize what I'm doing is part of it, rather than just "nervousness."

That because it is invisible I am not lying or malingering in order to live of the fabulous disability pensions the Government grudgingly "allows" us if we jump through all their hoops. I want Bureaucrats to realize all disabilities are not visible, we are not all in wheelchairs and we arent all mentally challenged and incapable of handling our own affairs.

Having what they love to call one of those lovely "orphan" diseases, one of the ones that little is known about, and very hard to detect, I've grown up being the klutz and went through hight school always being the kid nobody wanted on their team and falling over my own two feet, and spraining every part of my body. It wasn't until I was 48 years old that I finally got a diagnosis, as I started to tear all my ligaments and started to have operation after operation and none of them worked, each just tore again. When I finally came up with what I thought was a diagnosis the doctor I was going to laughed me out of his office. I had diagnosised myself, with the help of some family members who worked in the medical field as having Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome, it's the disease that the rubber men in the circus have. My doctor of that moment told me that as I wasn't in the circus I should just forget about it. Luckily I went to another doctor who took one look at me and told me that was what I had, and I found an organization who sent me info that verified it, and I was no longer a klutz, but someone with a serious disease, who needed to have the original operations re-done correctly, and am still working on it. I can't walk as it has effected my back, and my spine swings free, and I spend a lot of time in and out of the hospital, but it does effect the skin and make you look younger, so nobody ever thinks I'm sick and can't really get behind it that I'm as sick as I am because I look about 10 to 15 years younger than I am and on good days I can get around just like anyone else. I understand how hard it is for all of you, sometimes I wish I looked sick so people would understand, I'm sick, but too often people think it's a scam. Don't you ever just want to trade bodies for a day for two????

That just because a disability is invisible, doesn't mean it is just an excuse.

That if I need help, I'll ask for it! Most of the time help is actually getting in the way. Opening doors for me means I have to try and avoid running you over when I pass through the door. I do everything with my arms and am twice as strong as self proclaimed "helpers".

Just because I do not let you see me at my worse, does not mean that I can function as you think. Can you possibly understand the crushing fear of failure, that stops me from making those suggestions you have. Because when I fail, it is a loss of control, and another part of me that is gone. Do you think I choose to let my life go. Everyday is a battle, you do not witness, the simple things you take for granted. Don't judge what you can't understand. I remind myself, you hurt me because you love me and cannot face what are my limited choices for my life. I'm still doin the fight, but your judgement does not help.

That this is not something I can just "shake off" or "get over". I know I need to learn to control it and learn to function with it, but I can't just snap my fingers and make everything ok just like that.

I'm not as dumb, incapable, or niave as people think. I am worth more than you think I am. I can handle huge amounts of money (maybe better than some of the normal people out there). I don't have to live on $3,000 or less a month for the rest of my life. In fact I could probably live/do better with at least double that amount.