[Gpdd] MISC: Bipolar Traits

Willowstorm25 at aol.com Willowstorm25 at aol.com
Mon Aug 27 10:50:23 EDT 2007


Hi Jaime (and all Slaves),

It is a shame that so many people feel  the need to have to "apologize" for 
the behavior and emotional reactions that  come as a result of having an inborn 
cognitive or emotional  "anomaly".  Since my last post, I have heard from at 
least half a dozen  people who struggled with fibromyalgia.  The truth is, 
fibro often walks  hand in hand with depression and cognitive impairments, such 
as AD/HD.   Whether or not one causes the other, or vice versa, is not known 
for sure, but  there is definitely a strong correlation.

I was born with a  combination of Ring of Fire AD/HD and dyscalculia (the 
learning disability  I mentioned in my last post).  Bipolar and AD/HD do share 
many of the same  "traits" for many different complex reasons, which are both 
environmental and  biological.  Some theorists even place AD/HD on the Autism 
Spectrum, for  many reasons that do make sense.  But with the labels aside, 
those who  have these challenges suffer on many levels, emotionally, physically 
and  societally.  Most "normal" people just don't want to hear that you  have a 
special need, and will not accept it as an explanation for whatever  
difficulty you are having in overcoming a situation, and this can be more  devastating 
to a sufferer than all the other physical and emotional consequences  of the 
syndrome put together.  I have encountered many of these people on  my journey 
through life.  My parents were only two of them.  For this  reason, I had to 
learn to self-advocate, with the understanding that I would  constantly have to 
fight for my rights.  And so I do.

But  self-advocating gets mighty tiresome in a benighted, "mainstream" world, 
and  really can beat one down after a while.  That's why, when all is said  
and done, there is no substitute for being able to turn to a community that  
cares, listens and makes an attempt to understand, even if they can't  
necessarily see from your perspective.  I will have to say that we  definitely have 
such a community on the GPDD, and we should all be grateful  for it.   I heard 
this expression once that "the people who mind don't  matter, and the people who 
matter don't mind."  And that really applies in  a big way here.  

It is my wish, that someday, in this "enlightened"  world we now live in, 
that people with differing abilities will not feel the  need to apologize for not 
being "mainstream."  I wish there was an easy way  to make this happen, and 
though this is a dilemma I have been turning around in  my head for about 30, I 
have yet to find an easy answer.  Do any of you  have suggestions?  I'd love 
to hear them!

Nicholle, Slave to Ryvvir  & Chuqui



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