Do you even lift?
I do. All day everyday. So does anyone else with a physical disability.
Everything I do is a workout. Getting around campus is like one big tricep dip. Every time I fall I have to do a push-up and a squat. Walking half a mile is like jogging five. I have to do one big farmer’s carry to get my walker through rough terrain.
Paralyzed people get their lift in picking their legs up and dragging themselves in and out of their wheelchair.
Every day is shoulder day when a person is pushing dead weight around all day.
Being disabled isn’t just hard on the mind, it’s even harder on the body.
Kendall Pope/ Managing Executive Editor
Aside from the toll that any disability puts on the body that it hinders, there is a bigger price that’s paid every day to allow the person to live their life to the best of their ability.
The cost of living as functionally as possible is usually split between pain and frustration, possibly with a little humiliation mixed in.
Nonetheless, it’s a price most of us accept. We have to. Just because we want the world to slow down for a little bit, doesn’t mean it will.
For me, I try to manage my pain and frustration with rest, a healthy(ish) diet, exercise and medication. It helps, but it doesn’t solve the problem.
After years of hauling myself around I’m not as spry as I used to be, if I ever was. Somedays I feel like an old man.
I already have the walker and the arthritis. So in a way, I’m a couple steps ahead of this game called life. It’s rare that I’m a couple steps ahead of anything!
Luckily for me, CP isn’t exactly degenerative, so if my body is achy and fatigued, usually over time it heals with little to no residual effects of whatever was bothering me.
To further prevent injury, I try to go to the gym as often as my body allows to improve my ability to carry myself around, and lessen the burden and strain on my joints.
The problem is that when I do injure myself, I can’t really rest whatever body part is hurt because nearly everything I do requires the use of my entire body. In my mind, it’s not so bad
Generally speaking, my condition won’t keep me from doing what I’ve always been able to do. For some, that’s not the case
If you look at someone with a diagnosis such as Multiple Sclerosis, a progressive disease that affects a person’s brain and spinal cord, the situation is a little different.
The progression of the disease can slowly take away an individual’s ability to talk, walk and more, slowly stripping them of the independence they once had. Medication and treatment can slow the progression, but there is no cure.
There are many more conditions that cause similar effects. Perhaps the hardest part of it all, regardless of the disability is how the disability can affect a person’s motivation and self-worth.
The mental toll that being disabled takes on a person’s pride and self-esteem might be worse than the physical, when one has any sort of disability that seriously hinders the ability to live, it becomes a burden on a your mental state.
Everything is hard.
It gets easier but nothing is simple, there’s always a process to doing anything that could be made much more efficient if only they didn’t have a disability in the first place.
The truth though is that they do.
Even though they’ve accepted the added challenges it’ll never be a desirable way to live, and a piece of them will probably always wish things were different. I know I do.
That’s ok.
Ask anyone with any sort of disability, I’m confident that most if not all of them will say that dealing with the pain and frustration is worth enjoying life the best way they know how, all while still learning.
So to everybody who is suffering from a disability and to the rest that are simply (or not so simply) doing what you have to do to get by, give yourself a pat on the back for making it through today, through all the pain and frustration, and for carrying the weight of your world on your shoulders the best way you know how to.
You’ll be a little stronger when you do it again tomorrow.
Jacob Barrett can be reached at jbarrett@kscequinox.com
