Hello and welcome back to Second Chance to Live my friend. I am happy to have you around my table. I recently wrote an article that I would like to share in video format at this time. I share my articles in video format to make the information available to individuals who learn more effectively through listening and watching.
In my experience, I had to get to a place where I could accept my reality, even though there were family members and friends who could not accept me. In this article / video presentation I share several lessons that I learned from my interactions with 4 different mindsets, as an individual living with an invisible disability. Understanding these 4 different mindsets helped me to realize what I was facing as I interacted with family and friends.
Below is a brief except from the article: Living with an Invisible Disability — Accepting Ourselves when Other People Can’t
“As you may know, I sustained my brain injury in 1967. Once the external wounds healed, the impact of my traumatic brain injury was never again factored into the difficulties that I experienced for the next 39 years…. In my experience, when I reached a point in my life where the pain of denying my reality, exceeded the pain associated with my needing to deny my reality, so that I would not feel flawed and defective; I found myself angry, confused and depressed.
The reality was that I had felt flawed and defective for many years. I felt flawed and defective because I was unable to meet the expectations of many people — who could or would not accept the possibility that my life was being impacted by the open skull fracture that I experienced when I was 10 years old. I have heard that anger turned inward is depression. Because I received blame and criticism for not meeting expectations, I internalized my inability to meet those expectations as a reflection of who I was as an individual.
I wrote an article in May 2007 to explain what I discovered as I came out of denial: Whose Shame are you Carrying. Here is a link to that article Whose Shame are You Carrying? The information that I share in this article helped me understand why people wanted and even needed me to maintain the denial…. As I moved through my denial, I became aware of the struggle that I faced as I interacted with people as an individual living with an invisible disability.”
To watch the video presentation of the article, Living with an Invisible Disability — Accepting Ourselves when Other People Can’t please click on this link: Living with an Invisible Disability — Accepting Ourselves when Other People Can’t Video Presentation
To read the article Living with an Invisible Disability — Accepting Ourselves when Other People Can’t please click on this link: Living with an Invisible Disability — Accepting Ourselves when Other People Can’t
At the bottom of the article, Living with an Invisible Disability — Accepting Ourselves when Other People Can’t I included links to the video presentation series in which I share the awareness’ that I gained through interacting with the 4 different mindsets of individuals. The awareness’ helped me to grow in self-acceptance and gave me the ability to detach — with understanding — from people who are unable to accept me because of their denial.
May you also be encouraged as you grow in awareness as you listen to and watch this 4 part video presentation series. Awareness that will help you to love and accept yourself as you interact with these 4 different mindsets, that I speak to in this series.
My Struggle Living with an Invisible Disability Part 1 Video Presentation
As you listen to, watch or read my articles and questions come to mind, please send those questions to mind. All questions are good questions. In the event that you would like to leave a comment, I would love to hear from you.To do so, please use the below contact form. I will respond to your comments and questions.
[contact-form][contact-field label=’Name’ type=’name’ required=’1’/][contact-field label=’Email’ type=’email’ required=’1’/][contact-field label=’Website’ type=’url’/][contact-field label=’Comment’ type=’textarea’ required=’1’/][/contact-form]I look forward to hearing from you.
Craig
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