what qualifies you as being disabled?

TheBottomLine_2

Cyclone are you saying we should just get over it because there are more important issues? Sorry if I misunderstood but you're not clear.

pipkin71

dcmbarton wrote: »

I think that's true. This kind of remark comes into the same category as 'there's always someone worse off than you'. I find this very difficult - I've been told this by consultants on three occasions recently - there may well be many millions worse off than me, but that doesn't mean that the condition I have has any less impact on my life in my own place and situation.

Just before christmas I was told there was no cure for my spinal condition, followed by 'at least it isn't cancer'

I left the hospital in tears.

The consultant is right - I don't have cancer, but my health problems have a big impact on my quality of life, that hearing there is no cure was a really difficult thing to take in.

Indie_Kid

dcmbarton wrote: »

'there's always someone worse off than you'.

This phrase irritates me, tbh. I don't think anyone can truley understand what someones' disability is like.

calleyw

TheBottomLine wrote: »

Cyclone are you saying we should just get over it because there are more important issues? Sorry if I misunderstood but you're not clear.

No I think the point is to look at the bigger picture outside of yourself and you disabilty and that you are still alive.

It is easy to say that when you are not disabled. My husband is physically disabled and will be for the rest of his natural life.

We are hoping that he will weaned off his drugs as his condition seems to be stable. He also has suffered from depression since becoming disabled.

So as you see life is ball in our household. But telling him oh you are lucky because you are living and breathing does not go down well with him. It also does not mean that life is not hard or a struggle for.

I suggest that cyclonebri1 watches on the BBC Iplayer the diving bell and the butterfly before it is removed. The film is about a man who suffers from a stroke and then has locked in sydrome meaning he can only blink his eye and nothing else. He managed to dictate his thoughts and feelings which became a best seller, shame he died 10 days after it was published.

Yours


Calley

dktreesea

devildog wrote: »

_shell,
Thanks for the response. No blue badge either.
Has crohns so is able to stand but may not be able to wait!! Due to malnutrition also gets fatigued easily.

There seems to be a hierarchy with disability, almost as if some disabilities are seen as okay and "deserving" of help, whereas others are seen as skiving (e.g. mental illness/depression/anxiety) or seem to fall into a no mans land category of "well yes, you're ill, but not disabled, so we don't have to help you" (e.g any kind of sickness which results in an inflamed bowel and can leave you with less than a minute, if that, between realising you need to go and just going).

I have recently been diagnosed with osteo-arthritis in my knees. Both the doctor and the physiotherapist wasted no time at all in telling me what support services were out there and also urged me to apply for the disability component for working tax credit and to get a blue badge. I couldn't believe my ears. I live up 60 stairs. Surely anyone who can climb 60 stairs to their front door couldn't be classified as disabled enough to get a blue badge/DLA/disability allowance/whatever else is out there once you have been "badged" as disabled?

The message I got was "You are now officially "disabled". Therefore you are entitled to x,y,z and the kitchen sink. Apply now, straight away, no time to waste."

Okay, it's true to say, I won't be spending the summer climbing Ben Nevis or rambling around Snowdonia. And in a way I appreciate them for looking out for me. Oh yes, and one of them pointed out to me that the disability allowance wasn't income related, so "it is okay to be earning - just look at it like a tax rebate"....:shocked:

It's scary, to live in a society where badging oneself as disabled is encouraged, provided one has the "right" kind of disability.

Breast_Cancer_Survivor

pipkin71 wrote: »

Just before christmas I was told there was no cure for my spinal condition, followed by 'at least it isn't cancer'

I left the hospital in tears.

The consultant is right - I don't have cancer, but my health problems have a big impact on my quality of life, that hearing there is no cure was a really difficult thing to take in.

Im sorry to hear that pipkin.

Is there nothing they can do for you to alleviate some of your pain or enable you to move any easier even if they can't actually cure you?

Breast_Cancer_Survivor

dktreesea wrote: »

There seems to be a hierarchy with disability, almost as if some disabilities are seen as okay and "deserving" of help, whereas others are seen as skiving (e.g. mental illness/depression/anxiety) or seem to fall into a no mans land category of "well yes, you're ill, but not disabled, so we don't have to help you" (e.g any kind of sickness which results in an inflamed bowel and can leave you with less than a minute, if that, between realising you need to go and just going).

I have recently been diagnosed with osteo-arthritis in my knees. Both the doctor and the physiotherapist wasted no time at all in telling me what support services were out there and also urged me to apply for the disability component for working tax credit and to get a blue badge. I couldn't believe my ears. I live up 60 stairs. Surely anyone who can climb 60 stairs to their front door couldn't be classified as disabled enough to get a blue badge/DLA/disability allowance/whatever else is out there once you have been "badged" as disabled?

The message I got was "You are now officially "disabled". Therefore you are entitled to x,y,z and the kitchen sink. Apply now, straight away, no time to waste."

Okay, it's true to say, I won't be spending the summer climbing Ben Nevis or rambling around Snowdonia. And in a way I appreciate them for looking out for me. Oh yes, and one of them pointed out to me that the disability allowance wasn't income related, so "it is okay to be earning - just look at it like a tax rebate"....:shocked:

It's scary, to live in a society where badging oneself as disabled is encouraged, provided one has the "right" kind of disability.

I think that physical disabilities are seen by some to be more genuine than mental health disabilities.

People can see straight away that you have physical problems whereas you can't see that someone has a mental problem unless you know that person.

The thing is that you may well be entitled to DLA so why shouldn't you claim it?

Do you have to pay for taxi's etc or get someone to deliver your shopping & carry it up the steps for you?

You may have some additional expenses due to your disability if you think about it more.

If you don't want to claim it then that is up to you.

dmg24

pipkin71 wrote: »

Just before christmas I was told there was no cure for my spinal condition, followed by 'at least it isn't cancer'

I left the hospital in tears.

The consultant is right - I don't have cancer, but my health problems have a big impact on my quality of life, that hearing there is no cure was a really difficult thing to take in.

On another thread today some told me I should think myself lucky because I hadn't got a broken arm. Whilst I would not wish any injury on anyone, I'd much rather have a short term problem than a long term condition that is never going to get better.

The other classic I keep being told is 'It should be easy for you because you are intelligent'. Maybe if I was thick I wouldn't be aware of how much I have lost?

I agree about the hierarchy of conditions, which does not just apply to lay perceptions. If you look at research funding it is focused on specific areas, often quite disproportionately in comparison to those who are actually affected by the condition.

dktreesea

Breast_Cancer_Survivor wrote: »

I think that physical disabilities are seen by some to be more genuine than mental health disabilities.

People can see straight away that you have physical problems whereas you can't see that someone has a mental problem unless you know that person.

The thing is that you may well be entitled to DLA so why shouldn't you claim it?

Do you have to pay for taxi's etc or get someone to deliver your shopping & carry it up the steps for you?

You may have some additional expenses due to your disability if you think about it more.

If you don't want to claim it then that is up to you.

I don't do anything different to what I did before - it's just more uncomfortable if I walk too far or come up the stairs too quick. Same with driving. I no longer drive long distances. But I don't walk/drive around or do physical work for a living.

I have a friend who gets very depressed and who gets bullied when she works. It's a bit like the schoolground - workmates sense a weakness and pounce on it like lions fighting over scraps of meat. Yet she can't get ESA. She has to stay on JSA and then gets hassled by the DWP when she doesn't apply for enough jobs, or doesn't get the ones that she applies for. Not that they can actually arrange a job for her, mind you. Just little power hungry control freaks who like to inflict themselves on the weak, making thier misery even more entrenched, from what I can see.

Why should it be that one person's disability, even if it has nothing to do with their work and doesn't impede their ability to earn money at all, gets recognized and financially "rewarded", yet someone else's, which impedes them considerably, to the point where they can't earn an ongoing living, doesn't count?

I would prefer to see a different system, whereby people receiving benefits just get the one rate, and no one gets extra money because they are disabled.

Oldernotwiser

dmg24 wrote: »

I agree about the hierarchy of conditions, which does not just apply to lay perceptions. If you look at research funding it is focused on specific areas, often quite disproportionately in comparison to those who are actually affected by the condition.

Pressure groups, like the AIDS/HIV lobby, have a lot to answer for.