Category: Let's talk
If I hadn't of broken my back I would never have had the chance to do this, if I didn't have CP I wouldn't be elligable to go to compete in the Paralympics..is this really a healthy attitude to disability..have you ever caught yourself doing this and thought hang on..stop it?
yes, hate to amit my blindness has stopped me in doing some of the things i once loved
Ah but have you ever used this excuse for it..
hmmm. no, I've never thought like that, but I do think that who we are, the way we are, decides what kinds of life we will live. After all isn't it better to have that kind of positive attitude towards one's disability? Better to say "it's because of my disability I've had the opportunities I have, e.g. becoming a paralympic" than "because of my disability I have such a miserable life"? Its not necessarily your disability that gives you your opportunities, but it is true to say that if you didn't have a disability you might not have been to the places/met the people you have. How many of us have made friends through school etc, if none of us had visual impairments, we wouldn't have met the people we have, we would have totally different lives, and no-one can say how those lives would have turned out.
Alex, I know what you mean, and I think I can honestly say, no. I haven't thought that way. And in retrospect, I can't think of any opportunities I've had which I wouldn't have had without the blindness. I do think though, that a lot of little things come more easily with a disability, all the things that we tell ourselves we're too good to take advantage of, like jumping queues when we're in a real hurry, or getting special consideration making applications, or getting a cab off the street on a saturday night. Things that really don't matter, in the grand scheme, but I'm not proud nonetheless. I agree though, that feeling gratitude to your disability is just as unhealthy and misplaced as blaming it.
Resonant that's exactly what I was thinking. I feel this attitude comes from society's enduring negative attitude to disabled people, they are more or less forced to become grateful in defiance of this pity and negativity.