Disabilty or difference? It's all in how you look at it.
So - the stage is set - I'm looking at my partner and all the past is swirling through my head. It hit me like a bolt of lightening. I have always had to struggle/fight for everything I have. I am a learning disabled, dyslexic, attention deficit hyperactive adult. Also known as an addult. These things have made me who I am. I looked around the room - I was taking a college class that I was not supposed to be able to take. I wasn't supposed to be able to handle college. (Mary Margaret is wondering why motor mouth has stopped by now...) It's a feeling I can still recall. I looked at her - and said "If I change anything - I would not be who I am". It all came crashing down at this point.
So, should these things I have to deal with be defined as disabilities or differences? When I went back to college (this third time) my disabilities had names and were real to me. I was no longer a person with character flaws that kept people away from me in droves. What was with this 30+ year old person who would not sit still, got bored at parties, and made comments that were SO far off topic that everyone thought I had gotten completely loaded before I got there! THEN when they found out I was just that way naturally - it made them even MORE leary of me.
When I was told that my problems were physical, and that there were ways to learn to deal with these problems, my life began to change. I still have a hard time sitting at parties, but at least people who care about me don't let it bother them.
I used to have panic attacks over the stupidest stuff. I used to lose my keys ALL the time, and that was a panic attack I could not back away from. NOW I stop and calm when I panic - and I have a certain place to put my keys. I have to MAKE myself put them there. This is VERY hard for an LD addult to do. It took me YEARS to get it thru my subconscious that I will NOT remember where I drop my keys. These two things I learned when I first started college and a lady whom the state was paying to tutor me
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