Steph's Travel Adventures

 Well this one is another unusual one and, it is not my best subject, so you will have to bare with me.  Fear of not being like intellectually. Well, I do not know what this is but I would assume it is because of the fact that people stare at you. They think you are different. And you cannot communicate properly, and that makes them think that you are weird. And, then it makes people not want to interact with them. But recently, I have noticed that intellectually disabled people do very well in interacting with animals. This has been through my new job at APRADA. 

 I wonder what the future might hold as I know my past few months have not been easy. I look down at my cat's face whose head is resting on his paw, He'll be dreaming about tuna for sure. Although in the case he was chasing the bird, he wished he would be the one to lay down the law with his claw. But alas his feathered friend climbed up the wall. As he lays upon the brown speckled dots you would think they were rocks, 

 Once again here, you will have to bear with me because this is not my specialty area. I would assume that fear of the unknown from a person with an intellectual disability is how not knowing when saying something can affect someone else. It would be fear of what could come back at them if people did not take it the right way. Another thing that I am assuming would affect an intellectually disabled person would be not being able to pronounce correctly. So the chances of it being misinterpreted are higher, causing frustration for them and those around them. Lastly, I would assume that for them, when experiencing new situations or being pushed out of their comfort zone, it would be very challenging. As they do not possess the ability or the capacity to fully understand and comprehend why things are being done a certain way, fear can easily take its place.  Until next time. Stephanie :) 

 First of all, I apologise if this blog isn't up to my usual elaborative standard, as I am not mentally having the best night. OT appointments through the eyes of a physically disabled person.  As an example, I always hated OT appointments growing up because they were always associated with taking away a particular part of my independence. Now, I will admit. Lately, I have been very slack with my exercise, and naturally, for a physically disabled person, this is not the optimal state you want to find yourself in. Why? Well, there are a few reasons. One, because as you get a=older, it gets harder to motivate yourself. Two, because if you are not the one who puts in the hard yards, no one else will do it for you at the end of the day. And then, OT appointments are required to assess different ways of doing things. Whether through mechanical equipment or manual handling is up to the OT and the individual situation. Unfortunately for me, over the years, I have gone from primarily manua

 1- Do not walk away.  2- Let us finish speaking.  3- Miscommunication is a big no-no. 4- Miscommunication is most commonly seen when tip number 2 is not followed promptly. Give us time to communicate swiftly, so it does not lead to number 3. If miscommunication is achieved, it is tough to get back to the original conversation for some people because your right of say gets overhauled. Then, after you have communicated your point, it is always lovely to hear out from the other person.  And then, they can give you the best advice on moving forward.  Before I leave you with an ellipsis in your wake, if you don't let us finish speaking, it can cause us a great deal of frustration. For example, about myself, I would go another quarter of my day trying to communicate to another person what I was trying to say.  Until next time! Thanks, Stephanie :)

 Although I touched on this briefly in a blog that I published earlier this evening, I will now try to go into this in more detail.  So what I meant earlier by me having contradicting interactions with intellectually disabled people, more often than not, what will happen is them playing with my control and making my wheelchair go forward and put them and me in harm's way. But so far, this hasn't happened. And prevention is better than cure.  So the easiest way to avoid this, you ask? Well....turn off all power from the wheelchair. This includes taking out all power cords. But in cases where this isn't possible, I have unfortunately had people that had tried to run me forward inside a taxi. I've had people unintentionally try to flip me or make me fall sideways in a cab. I've had people come up to me in social outings and unintentionally try to run me into walls.  As you can imagine, being the one in the wheelchair when something like this happens can be frightening

 Now for this blog, I do not have as much information. So you will have to bare with me because this is not my specialty area.  If you know the type of intellectual disability displayed by a person, you can adjust your approach accordingly. So, in saying this, you would not be running up to someone with autism and making loud noises and changing their routine because this would cause them to essentially have a bad day. But the one thing that you need to remember to do is to get down to their level.  And with that, for now, I will leave you but I may update this blog in the future. So please keep checking in case I do any updates. Thank you, Stephanie :)

 The number one tip here is, don't stare at us.  Number two, if you are curious, ask questions. We preferred to be asked questions and not answer than stared at. Number 3, do not assume that we are dumb. If you give us the time, we might be quite intelligent on certain subjects. For example, my subjects would be anything to do with human or veterinary medicine. Aside from story writing and various other individual topics. Although in saying this, lately for myself, I have been very slack when it comes to veterinary medicine. I have a lot more study to do! Number 4. Do not point out what is different. As some people may find this embarrassing and/or nerve-wracking. Personally, when I was growing up, I made the choice of what information to disclose. So in saying this, I didn't always find it unnerving to do so. But as I grew older, it got easier to know what to explain and what to avoid saying to people.  And point number 5, is that there are some people you can elaborate a bit

 One of my best lots of advice is to make sure that the person always has a carer. Because in my personal experience, I haven't had much luck interacting with disabled people. I have found myself in some very complicated situations where intellectually disabled people will approach me and want to spend time with me. Still, unfortunately, they want to play with my chain, putting them in harm's way. So this is why now I more commonly avoid interacting with intellectually disabled people. But this does mean I should avoid it if I want to gain exposure. But it is just that this exposure moving forward will have to be consistently monitored so that I do not end up in difficult positions again.  Being a person with a physical disability myself, I always try to be very respectful of other people with a disability, even though I don't always have interactions with them because I don't know how their day has been. Probably the most common place I have interactions with people wh

 hmm, I find myself here again plotting over another blog. My best piece of advice here is don't walk away from them and let them finish their conversation (if they're verbal). If they're not verbal it is still nice for them to be acknowledged. For example, when I was going through school, I had two disabled friends who were non-verbal. One had epilepsy, and one didn't. They both could communicate by making noise to varying degrees. However, they couldn't communicate through spoken word. But a lot could be said from their facial expressions. If you are interacting with someone who is verbal like me, it is much easier to facilitate a proper conversation. But the problem that I have most of the time is that people cut me off or I don't get to finish my side of the conversation. This is highly irritating because it commonly leads to miscommunication between parties. As physically disabled person we may not be able to do much physically; however, our power of observ

 My main piece of advice here is to not treat them differently. Treat them the same as you would an able body person. Approach them, ask them questions in a kind manner, do not make assumptions, do not stare and do not do things that would make them feel like they are different. Now is the time when you should encourage kids in a respectful manner to involve kids with disability in things. Using myself as an example, I am now 28, but when I was going through primary school, inclusion was a big thing. You would go out to playgrounds and be included in games like skipping, handball and you name it. I have tried everything within reason. And although it might seem that we are not doing much, the power of observation can be a great teacher. Due to obviously having a physical disability, there were some things that were out of bounds. My advice to you here is to don't do things that you think you should in relation to having a physical disability because you could end up breaking your c

 Option 1- which once again I do not recommend, does not have anything to do with occupational therapy.  Option 2 is to gradually get children used to OTs. Believe me, this is not an easy task. This advice is coming from me, someone who hates OTs.  But recently, as in meaning over the previous three out of five years of her uni course, a beautiful carer of mine, by the name of Kasia Rae, has persuaded me differently. Before I met Kasia, I only knew OTs in a professional manner. So to me, growing up, I understood what they were doing but didn't agree with it.  The main reason I did not agree with it is that the more I grew up, the more I felt like they were taking away my physical independence to use my body and instead relying on equipment to do the work. But, once again, as I said in one of my previous blogs, these people do serve a purpose in the community. And they are an important part of a disabled person's life whether they like it or not. Does it mean that you totally di

 This will be my last blog for the night so I will try my best to make it as proficient as possible! Anxiety around fear of the unknown, for any disabled person, is a huge thing because a lot of the time we have someone else making decisions for us or in reference to us. So, we usually don't have a choice or control in the situation either, which adds to the anxiety. An example of this is when I recently saw a psychiatrist. Personally, I found it extremely difficult to do and very confronting, which is why if I have to go back to them, I would not be happy. But once again, as I just said in my previous blog, which I hope to link below at some point (but it won't be tonight), these doctors do serve a purpose in the community and they are there for the people who do really need them.  For example, my fear of the unknown s felt at least  4 times a fortnight, which equates to twice a week. This could be for multiple reasons as for the past months, my mental health has not been easy

 Well well well...when it comes to doctors and doctor's appointments when you have a disability, there is usually an overwhelming amount of them. So much so that they normally start their rounds not long after you were born, as you are almost immediately taken care of by the doctors who are in NICU (Neo-natal Intensive Care Unit) or up on the ward. And then for the rest of your life, you deal with an onslaught of varying degrees. So much so that there are a few breakdowns along the way. But, there are some ways you can deal with them. Number 1, which I do not recommend, is to not deal with your feelings surrounding these appointments.  Number 2, try as best as possible to deal with the anxiety when you are in the waiting room. Otherwise, it will want to come out of you in various forms afterwards. And if you are anything like me, you'll be running out the door as fast as you can. But the thing to remember here at the end of the day is that, as much as they can be very annoying,

 Thus I will find it extremely hard to explain but she will try her hardest not to cry along the way. What do Angela and Murray mean to me? Well, to most people, this might only take you 5 minutes, but to this point, it has taken me at least 5 years to be able to realise what they truly do mean to me, and I think the story that I am currently writing to do with these beautiful people, is allowing me to find out what that truly is. Over the years, Angela, Murray and I have spent a considerable amount of time with one another; nevertheless, I will say this; hopefully, at my best, I struggle to find words that truly describe the immensity of these two beautiful people mean to me. Have you ever heard the saying; "the world is your oyster"? Well, I have, but little did I know at the time that oyster was in the form of two very special people. Angela and Murray never gave me the world, but what they did do during this time was they allowed me to experience it on my own feet, or whe

 The months that have passed have been long and hard for me in a multitude of different ways. Unfortunately mostly to a mental degree, although little did I know on the 26th of September last year, that I would happen to create the second longest story in my life to date. Although as I mentioned in Angela's birthday post which I will link below, it is only to have six chapters but that six chapters have, and won't come easily. Why is this you ask? Because although this story follows the realistic/fictional lives of my 2 best friends writing the proceeding story has not been easy on a multitude of levels. Mainly because as it stands, it now has outworked my other long-standing story, and my other long-standing story has 4 stories with 2-3 parts each story which I'm currently now writing story 5 of, but what makes this story stand out from that one is that it carries a lot more realistic emotional weight as most of the time I spend about 2-3 hours writing the bulk of this sto