[AHeartOfRuby]

Hey guys! I'm "the lucky one" the girl whom you've known sense kindergarten but still can't respect or acknowledge. I have had less surgery than many people I know and I can even walk, sorta.. I have mild spastic cerebral palsy a disease in the brain that affects the tightness of my muscles which causes my body to collapse fall and trip as a result I use crutches and a walker and, I'm bullied. I mean my brother has it worse he's blind and has hypertension cerebral palsy so he can't even walk but he's one heck of an optimist and I look up to him. This is why I'm called lucky. I mean a simple cold and I can't even lift up my feet fatigue hits me pain in the joints. I'm so tired of it. Of all the insensitive people of school of family and my body.

Guess who's having surgery this year? My sophomore year. Nobody understands.

[Deejay14]

Do you really define yourself by that list..no wonder life is so hard what is self imposed pts.
I have CP ans ptsd and if I kept listing all the problems I wouldn't feel good about me. I am sorry you are being bullied. I don't know what you can do about that ..kids can be cruel. Make a positive list about yourself and start reading that every day. You will be happier. You can't change what other people think but you can change how you think about it.

[Travelinglady]

People can be so cruel. I hope you will meet some adults who understand and you can get away from those immature kids. Remember that it's their problem, and they are missing the chance to know a great person.

Folks don't understand that CP doesn't affect "smarts." I had an excellent student who was confined to a wheelchair and couldn't talk due to CP. And my neurologist has CP!

Hang in here. Things will get better. Okay?

[Skeezyks]

[Christina86]

Hiya. I have spina bifida (the most severe kind) and people are always calling me 'inspirational', and 'lucky' and all sorts of other nonsense. Mostly because although I'm in a manual wheelchair full-time, people tell me I "look normal" for someone who has a disability... whatever the heck that means!

People who don't have a physical disability that's so apparent don't really understand. It's not exactly their fault that they can't understand, but they can sometimes really be annoying and irritating and offensive because of it.

I'm sorry you're having surgery. Surgery sucks. It might improve some things for you, but it doesn't help for self-esteem or relationships with your peers. Sophomore means you're in highschool, right? I remember that time in my life. You're dealing with too much already as a teenager, and then you've got to deal with all of this adult-level nonsense like disability and how it affects literally everything in your life. It's not fair. It sucks.

But I promise, there is hope. I just turned 30 back in July. I survived highschool and it's problems, and then post-secondary (which I'm still in, ironically...) You have more to deal with than other people. That's an unfair burden. But I bet that anyone else in your position could not deal with it as well as you currently are. You're allowed to hate your body and for the ways it lets you down and messes **** up. You're allowed to hate other people and their seemingly perfect lives without disabilities. You're even allowed to hate your family for not being able to fully understand what you're going through. And although your brother might be "worse off" from a physical standpoint - you're right about the whole optimism thing. Being optimistic is hard. Trying to have a good day when you've got so many bad days to deal with is hard. Just take it a moment at a time. Even one minute.

I'm the world's largest hypocrite when I say this - but try to think of something each day that you're grateful for. Something that is good in your life.

For me? I'm constantly amazed at how stupid non-disabled people can be towards people with disabilities. How completely oblivious they are. How they try to "help" but aren't actually helping. So I think to myself "Christina, you are a good person who understands how to help other people and are not as dumb as these other people. Good for you!" and then I give myself a mental pat on the back. Because it's easier for us to sometimes understand other people's issues - because we have so many of our own.

I hope this wasn't a long boring read for you. I hope that maybe some of this has helped. Always remember - there ARE people out there that have had similar experiences to yours. Not identical, but similar. So we can always listen if you need to talk.

[AHeartOfRuby]

Thank you for this.