...Well into my mid-20s, I endured crushing depressions and violent anger issues. Almost everything frustrated me, and I often lashed out from that frustration, or else withdrew into solitude. As people who knew me back then can attest, I was unusually insecure even by adolescent standards until I discovered the holy trinity of heavy metal music, theatre classes, and roleplaying games between 1978-79. Those three venues (plus, a few years later, punk rock and medieval-recreation groups) gave me outlets for my passionate temperament that did not demand a reliably functioning sensory-input system. Ironically, my writing vocation (which became possible only when home-computer technology caught up with my dyslexia) helped me turn those skills and interests into a somewhat-profitable career. Up until then, my work and life were constantly hindered by a brain that insisted on reading data incorrectly and with unreliable results… and also by the emotional turmoil of having my ability to process information constantly scattered without warning. Combined with the social stigma (“spaz,” “retard,” “you’re just not TRYING hard enough“), those factors were literally driving me un-sane. ___________________________________ Depression. Chronic pain. Sensory processing disorders. Theyre invisible. Theyre debilitating in ways that folks who dont suffer from them cannot imagine. And theyre used to shame people who are already fighting their own bodies and minds just to get through another day. This struggle does not make us cowards. It makes us human. I originally posted this article a few months back, but it seems especially relevant in the wake of Robin Williams suicide and the crap folks are saying about it. Please feel free to Share. satyrosphilbrucato.wordpress/2014/06/07/stigma-disorders-and-shame/
Posted on: Wed, 13 Aug 2014 03:19:45 +0000
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