I am invisible. Well, I’m not actually invisible but part of me is.
The part of me that really doesn’t want me to succeed or to do well; the part that hates me having a good day.
And, I say it is invisible because you can’t see it. You can’t see me struggling. Granted, some days I take a long time to walk up stairs or my mood is down, but you probably won’t know why.
This is the same for many other people in the world. They have the same feeling every day. They are treated like liars and looked at funnily.
Rest Ministries estimates that around 1 in 2 Americans have a chronic condition. Disabled World estimates that around 10% of the population (650 million people) have a disability. Unfortunately, quite a few of these are invisible.
And the problem, is that people don’t understand something that they can’t see. If people can’t see problem, then it clearly doesn’t exist. This isn’t always the case.
I know so many people who live with invisible problems that you will never know about. You’ll never know about them until you know that person. That is why I take the stance that you can never judge someone by what you see, and you should cut people slack when it isn’t needed.
Maybe your friend says she’s tired, or your other friend says he isn’t feeling too well. The way to deal with that is to give someone a break. Even if they are ‘normal’ everyone needs a step back once in a while… after all, we’re all only human (insert Rag’N’Bone Man… I couldn’t resist).
There is a long list of what is considered an invisible disability, which is a condition that impacts you on a long term basis or will probably impact you for life. Such as: depression, anxiety, Ehlers Danlos Syndrome, diabetes, epilepsy, chronic fatigue syndrome, JHS, chronic pain, endometriosis, autism, asthma… the list can go on.
People, we are in the 21st century… it is 2017 for goodness sake. There is no room for anymore hate than there already is in this world. Just because there is going to be a president soon who discriminates against every single minority… doesn’t mean we need to be so horrid to other people.
There are so many people who are invisible warriors and you probably don’t even know it. Maybe, you’re one of us and I want to congratulate you.
Well done on whatever you’ve done today, I know it must have been hard.
I could go on and on about this issue, but I feel sad I have to even discuss it. I feel sad I have to put this on the internet.
I shouldn’t be shamed for sitting down after 10 minutes of standing, or wanting to take the life because I look perfectly fine. Probably because I look ‘normal’ to nearly everyone who comes across me.
We shouldn’t be shamed for taking a disabled seat on a bus, taking longer to walk up the stairs or even some of us having a disabled parking badge.
We battle through every day and just wait to see what the next day brings.
We don’t want your sympathy, we don’t want you to feel sorry. We don’t want you to worry when we tell you, we want you to treat us them same.
However, we want you to acknowledge that we do exist, and our conditions do exist. And sometimes, we want you to understand and not judge us.
That’s all we want.
Thanks,
If you can relate, comment below. Links to sources used on the names.
See you soon,
LegallyFierceFeminist 