[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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