MENTAL HEALTH AWARENESS SERIES
What’s it Like to Be Physically and Mentally Challenged?
12th day of May —being a physically and mentally challenged person might cause misperceptions and misunderstandings in observers.
I don’t know about you, but for me, physical Education, also known as P.E., was a requirement, not only in high school but also in college. In high school, there wasn’t a choice as to the activity. I remember unwillingly climbing ropes and clumsily practicing line dancing.
College was a different situation altogether. Choice abounded, almost overwhelmingly so, but I ended up choosing a couple of interesting sports to participate in. One was tennis, which I enjoyed very much. The other was rowing or crew.
The rowing elective consisted of a team of women and there was practice, then there was the real thing. We actually went to a competition against several other women’s teams at Lake Washington. I was excited to compete, but unfortunately, we weren’t a very good team, and I think we came in LAST!
Our team was physically challenged in more ways than one. We were IN a challenge, competition, but we were also not very good at what we did physically. Thus, we were physically challenged!
Physically challenged. Clutzy. Unbalanced. Clumsy. And other unmentionable descriptions.
Having the unfortunate curse of being physically challenged is obvious to other people around you. You can’t hide it. But there are other challenges that are well hidden, and likely more common than having a physical challenge. The mentally, socially, and emotionally challenged person is more difficult to spot. They can more easily hide their challenges behind masks and smiles.
The month of May is National Mental Health Awareness month, along with several other declared national days. The mentally challenged person faces a lot of challenges in their lives. Here are just a few that I’ve thought of, maybe you can think of more of the real challenges that they deal with.
- Being rejected from groups and clubs because they don’t ‘act’ right or something seems ‘off’ about them.
- Self-isolation to keep from getting hurt over and over again by society.
- Odd sleep patterns because of stress, anxiety, distorted thoughts, and other disorders.
- Extreme depression which sometimes leads to self-harm or suicidal intent.
- Eating habits that are unhealthy, too much or too little, binging is common
- Relationships that are either non-existent, short-lived, or unhealthy.
- Inability to communicate effectively with others, whether in person or on paper.
Can you imagine being mentally challenged and having to deal with these issues day after day, hour after hour?
These seven descriptions of the challenges that the mentally ill live with are only a few that I’ve written from a personal perspective. I’m sure there are more, but I wanted to possibly make you, the reader, more AWARE that the mentally ill person is just that, a person, and they face challenges that are daunting and overwhelming.
I’m thinking about how fortunate I am to have lived the life I have. Currently, I have a home, a husband, and friends. I’ve never been homeless, I’ve not been to a mental facility for treatment, I’ve never chosen to use any kind of addictive drugs, I’ve always had employment, and my life is fairly normal.
The exception to my ‘normalness’ is the evidence of mental challenges that I face every day.
Being mentally challenged presents many many many challenges that can become unbearable to face alone. This simple poem describes how it feels to be me.
Eyes downcast, she hides herself well, Inside her soul there’s a raging hell. Alone, no hope of reaching for friends, All she can think of is how this ends.
Sleepless nights with tormenting thoughts, Torturous, relentless like swirling dots. Days go by spent alone, Hiding her pain with an ice cream cone.
Those that seem shy or even stuck up, Only pretending so as not to erupt. Wishing for someone to make a start, To reach out a hand along with a heart.
Thank you for reading today’s Mental Health Awareness article. Stay tuned for another tomorrow, that is, if I can stop long enough to write one. And in case you missed the previous ones, you can find them here.
Are You Out There family of publications: | Are You Out There | GOLD Writing | BMG Productions | Drop a Line| |🦋Imaginative Fiction Out There🦋 |Read All About It |
Find me: 🦋Kathy K’s Medium profile page 🦋 🦋Subscribe to my stories by email 🦋Join Medium with my referral link
| Gmail | Facebook | Twitter | LinkedIn | Substack | Simily | Vocal | |Elegant Literature | Ko-Fi |
