An Alternative Way to View People With Disabilities & Mental Illness

I’ve gone through life living with Bipolar II & Social Anxiety, as well as having a younger brother who was born deaf and another who was nearly made permanently disabled from the neck down with Relapsing

Polychondritis. And I know just how cruel people can be. So I’m offering an alternative way for others to view people with disabilities as well as mental illness.

People with disabilities and mental health issues are not all monsters or as insane as you think. It isn’t nice to judge us because of who we are and what we have limited control over. An example, who would employ a child care worker with Bipolar II & Social anxiety because of it’s label? Probably noone because they think it’s a danger to the children. But I assure you I am an excellent mother who takes great care of my son and would never purposely put him in any danger. My mental health does not make me incapable of looking after children. I am a very safe person with a high IQ who is quite capable of being as good as any other person in children’s services. My qualifications are the same as people without. I can perform first aid, I know how to build rapports with children better than most.

I have come to realise that people with Bipolar disorder are often song writers, singers, artists, creative people, musical talents, above average IQ, take more risks in business such as billionaire Richard Branson, comedians, have a rush of energy that gets them determined and motivated.

When I was an assistant manager of a cafe’ I hired an Autistic girl. My decision was frowned upon and she was severely picked on by the other girls because of her label. She was such a great worker! She was a little slow at first but once she picked something up her memory wouldn’t allow her to forget how to do it. I only ever had to show her how to do something once. She memorised everything and she did the job better than anyone else there. She took a little longer to clean but she did the job properly and took no short cuts. She was confused when too many people gave her orders so she was told to only listen to me and she worked very efficiently. She was overwhelmed by some customers rude comments but it wasn’t her job to defend herself, it was my job to defend my staff and keep the customer happy. This Autistic girl was one of the best workers I ever had in my store.

I have come to realise that people with Autism and Aspergers can have extremely high IQ’s in favourite topics, great at patterns, exceptional memory, attention to detail and literature skills.

My brother’s friend had ADHD and was always in trouble at school and getting in to lots of fights, easily influenced. The teachers absolutely hated him because of his label and weren’t really responding to his behaviour in an appropriate manner. They wanted him out of the school. Yet this same boy with ADHD came from a broken home where he had to stick up for his mum so she wouldn’t get beaten. He was like another brother to me. He would come to pick my brother up for school every morning, help him find his socks and shoes, make his breakfast and even bring in our bins. The loyalty of this boy was amazing. He did have some problems that he needed to work on but the point I’m getting at is every person with disabilities or mental health has special talents and special strengths. This boy just wanted to protect the people he loved and show his loyalty to people who would give him the time of day.

When I was younger I worked at Mc Donalds and I served a young man with down syndrome who wanted a soft serve ice cream. He asked me to flex and show him my muscles! LOL The girls at the front counter were making fun of him and I really wanted to smack them in the back of the head. A few months later I was going for a walk and I walked past a house and out came this boy running towards me. At first it freaked me out because I had no idea who it was. It took me a while to think about it but it was the same boy that I served many months back. He had instantly recognised me. He touched my arm and asked me to flex my muscles and I did. It brought a big smile to my face. About 2 years later I was at the sports club and I got a tap on the back. I turned around and there was the boy again! And I showed him my muscles LOL and he clapped his hands. Everyone around me gave me strange glares, they just didn’t get it and thought I was a nut case. I came to learn that some people with down syndrome had INCREDIBLE photographic memory! Despite some research saying they have decreased memory.

This later proved to be the case with a nice down syndrome man that I met at my dad’s workplace. His name was Tim and he was a trolley boy. I went up to him to have a talk and my dad came out. He later told me that this man had an incredible memory and that he could memorise every worker’s registation number of their vehicle!! And he was also the strongest trolley collector they had ever hired. So now I learnt something else. People with down syndrome have incredible memory and some can have incredible strength even when research says children with down syndrome have diminished muscle strength.

I will finish with something I found inspiring on the internet by Gary Bailey:

“Beethoven composed his greatest works after becoming deaf. George Washington was snowed in through a treacherous winter at Valley Forge. Abraham Lincoln was raised in poverty. Albert Einstein was called a slow learner, retarded and uneducable. If Christopher Columbus had turned back, no one could have blamed him, considering the constant adversity he endured...

...History has shown us that the most celebrated winners usually encountered heartbreaking obstacles before they triumphed. They won because they refused to become discouraged by their defeats...

...Celebrate your difficulties as they teach you to grow...”

gary-bailey.com/ 

So please find the strengths and positives in people regardless of their physical or mental stance.