I don’t have a lot of people to turn to, never really have… I’ve been pretty isolated most of my life, so I’ve just sort of muddled through by reading a lot and trying to figure out how to deal with stuff on my own.
But I’m not really sure how to handle this. I’m disabled and have been most of my life, and I haven’t really let it stop me for the most part. It gets in the way, but I brute force my way through. Often to my own detriment.
I guess I’m not doing as well as I thought… I’m applying for a disability upgrade, and one of the things I can submit is statements in support of my claim, letters from the people around me about how my disability impacts my life, and theirs. If this doesn’t sound like a normal disability process that’s because this is the VA service-connected disability process, rather than a normal one.
Anyway, I asked a couple of my closest friends to write something up about how they have seen the impacts, and it low-key hurt my soul to read. Reading how they have been negatively impacted by my limitations, and how they view what I go through has been the worst kind of eye opening.
And I’m not sure how to deal with that, or even where to look.
If you’ve got motherly or fatherly advice, if you’ve been through similar, if you’ve been through something else hard, please feel free to share. Anything helps.
If you told your friends to write an impact statement to upgrade your disability, they’re going to do the best job they can to make you look as helpless as possible to make sure you get it :>
This was my thought too. If my good friend told me to call her a name because she needed it I’d step up!
Not sure if this helps, but my boss calls it catastrophizing over change.
I think OP has to remember they were asked to caterwaul. It’s far more myopic than normal. Most people can make do in the absolute worst conditions, and there’s a lot of laughs in between dire statements. We all tend to hold up as best we can.
You can be right about exact conditions, but way over the top when it’s about morale.