Seen v Unseen Disabilities

 

Welcome to Chronic Illness Chat. I'm Julie Hamilton.

Today I'm talking about scene versus unseen disabilities. In parking lots, you see handicapped spots, and you see somebody get out of their car who has parked in these spots. Most likely they have a placard in their window or have a handicapped license plate. They walk into the store and do not look handicapped and you're thinking, why are they parked there? They're not disabled.

I wanted to point out that not all disabilities are visible. Yes, some are visible. For example, people who walk with walkers, canes, and motorized vehicles.

But so many illnesses are not seen. Chronic illness can be a disability but may not be seen. A chronic illness means it is long term illness. Examples would be fibromyalgia, lupus, cancer, arthritis, osteoarthritis. These are just a few examples.

I'm going to give you an example for me why I had a handicap placard. I have fibromyalgia and needed a placard so I was allowed to park close to doors. 

It was kind of a cloudy day, and I still was kind of coming off of a flare and wasn't feeling the best. I went to the grocery store, parked in the handicaps, and I went in the store. If you saw me would have thought, oh my God, why is she parking there? She's not handicapped. I clearly can't see this. But then I went through the grocery store and got groceries,. By the time I got to the checkout line, I was in so much pain. I started crying. It was all I could do to hang on to that cart, to get to the checkout, get my groceries unloaded, and pay for my groceries. Then I had to get them back into the cart and walk out. And the checkout counter lady said, ma'am, are you all right? Do you need some help? Do you want some help going out there? I was just so embarrassed by it, but I was in so much pain and I just couldn't hardly tolerate it. I didn't ask for the help, and I probably should have.

By the time I got ready to walk out, I was hanging onto that cart for dear life. It was practically dragging me to the car. I unloaded the cart into my car and thought how am I going to put the cart away? Luckily, a very nice gentleman was coming up the pathway or the parking lot at that time and said, you want me to take that cart in for you? He could clearly visibly see, I was really struggling unloading my groceries. I was just crying. I said, yes, sir, thank you so much. got in my car and I just cried.

Then I regrouped and was able to drive home. After that little bit of resting, I was able to get back home and get my groceries into the house. I had to sit for a while before I could put my groceries away.

Not all disabilities or illnesses are visible. And I just want to point that out because so many people think that if you're disabled, you have to be able to see it. Well, you can't always see it because you can't see what's going on inside of our body. You can't see what's going on in our head. You can't see the pain or the physical features inside, underneath our clothing, all of that. I just want you to be aware of that next time you're out and about or you see somebody and you're thinking, well, they're not disabled. Well, most people, and I would say almost 98% of the people that park in those parking spaces are disabled, but you just can't see it. So please be kind and respectful to those who do park there.