If you *actually have* a physical disability, what is it?

[Wraith_Magus]

Ah, something else I just thought of...

My father can't drink caffeine, either, it puts his heart into palpitations. All decaf for him.

Also, I guess I should emphasize how much of an effect sleep has on this - if I'm staying up late, just getting excited playing a video game can get my heart out of whack, no physical strain necessary, just something that gets my heart rate elevated will start giving me problems. If I'm really pushing it staying up, like if I am doing an all-nighter to finish some project whose deadline is due, I don't even need that, I'm just permanently in the "my heart's every beat is pounding in my ears, and they aren't regular heartbeats, at that" mode, no matter how little activity I am doing.

Basically, lots of naps are your best friend, and insomnia is your second-worst enemy behind salt. (Which is why it's so stupid of me to keep getting back up out of bed to keep adding onto this at 2 AM...)

[ContinualNaba]

Goddamnit, man, stop making your life sound so pleasant. Constant naps? That's heaven right there.

[Wraith_Magus]

I didn't say I actually took them, just that they're good for my health. I actually tend to not have enough sleep more often than not. I only tend to nap if I'm at home, since insomnia generally prevents it anywhere but in my bed, anyway.

My father, too, he's a workaholic. I remember him sometimes coming home, and we all had to be quiet at 2 PM on a Saturday because he'd basically worked through the night on Friday, and now his heart couldn't handle the lack of sleep anymore.

But yeah, thinking about it, pretty much every time I remember palpitations, it involved too little sleep in at least some way, so sleep is a major factor in these things.

[Yuurei]

Nothing special for me, I nearly died a lot of times but I haven't got a disability.
Or well, I have low vision and I probably have to use glasses, but I don't and I don't see an oculist from long time even if my mother often prays me to do that. Moreover I am very silent when I'm in group so people often ask if I'm mute or I have problems, but no more than that -and in truth I talk for four people when I want to.

[toad]

I left the choices blank, because what I have is minor. Mostly age caught up with me at an earlier than normal age. Right now I'm in a recovery mode and identifying with Hisao these days. I was suffering from hyperparathyroidism for an apparently long time. Weird since it only affect about 1% of the population and mostly women. I had the "bad" parathyroid removed this October, 2010 and I'm waiting for things to improve, if there hasn't been permanent damage. High blood pressure, depression, osteoporisis, aching joints, fatigue, to frequent urnination, and etc. It is not fatal but cuts about five years off of your life expectancy. I've got three types of blood pressure meds that I'm taking. I am off the Prozac, yeah. Got a cataract developing in my right eye which kind of sucks since I'm right eye dominate. Hoping I can get off the blood pressure meds as time goes by.

It has been a while since I've played the game. But I now have an urge to coddle all the girls. I did manage to get on the "get drunk with Kenji and fall off the roof ending". Did a replay to end up with Rin.

[Guest]

I have bad eyesight. Something has to be right in front of my face for me to see it without it being blurry. I actually have to go to the Eye doctor to get new glasses because even with my glasses everything is still slightly blurry.

I'm also partially deaf in my right ear. I have no idea why or how. Maybe birth defect? Maybe I hit my head when I was a baby? I don't know, no one's every told me why. I actually found out about it from the school nurse in elementary school. They were doing the hearing test where you raise your left/right hand to each beep. My right ear didn't hear half of the beeps. Low-pitch or high-pitch, I can't remember. Every year they would tell me what I already know, even if I told them ahead of time, after the test the nurse would looked shocked and concerned and tell me like I didn't just tell them five minutes ago. -_-
It doesn't effect my life greatly. I have more trouble hearing people then most, specially if people are talking quietly/softly/the surrounding is loud. Although I do take advantage of this as well. When my boyfriend if playing video games/watching TV when I'm trying to sleep I just have to lay on my left side and I can barely hear the TV.

[Wrench Wench]

Honestly most of these are barely something you can class as a disability.

OK I guess mine could be regarded as beneficial but still.

[Minister of Gloom]

Honestly most of these are barely something you can class as a disability.

OK I guess mine could be regarded as beneficial but still.

Nah, you could think of any number of disadvantages to being freakishly big, especially if you are woman (in which case there are going to be a lot of social problems as well, I assume, in our wonderful, stereotypical world). Like most conditions, it's both beneficial and disadvantageous, depending on how you look at it and what you want to do with your life. I have to admit that relatively to some other conditions, Gigantism is probably far closer to the positive side of the scale (and you claim that in your specific case you don't even have to deal with stuff like a really shortened lifespan, so good for you), but still.

[Wrench Wench]

Well in my case my doctor isn't even one hundred percent on if it is gigantism but to be honest? I kind of zone out when he starts talking a lot because it's just all over my head. I'm a mechanic not a doctor!

ANYWAYS. Yes there's a lot of disadvantages but most of them seem to be social in nature which makes them easier to deal with. Ok my early life and teens left me a bundle of nerves and socially awkward to the point of snapping but I've gotten over that.

The point I was making was that we see a lot of "oh sort of bad vision" and stuff that sounds more like just general poor health.

[Minister of Gloom]

I don't think anybody expected fans of this game to be mostly crippled themselves. If only people with missing limbs posted here, this thread would have been like two pages long instead of twelve. Why are you so surprised that most of us only have very minor health problems, if at all? I don't think anyone here who wears glasses (and I am not talking about those people who wouldn't be able to see the tip of their nose without glasses, I'm talking about normal people who need them to read the tiny letters on the wall) or has tinnitus or slightly over-flexible fingers thinks of himself or expects anyone else to consider him physically disabled... (unless you are trying to get into a combat role in the army, in which case you are probably fucked)

[Merlyn_LeRoy]

All us minorly-handicapped folks now get our own parking spaces:
http://failblog.org/2010/11/23/epic-fai ... some-what/

[Siege]

Not really disabled myself. Oh, I've a litany of minor problems (lactose intolerance, correctable nearsightedness, minor respiratory allergies controllable with OTC meds), but nothing that would really effect me at all. I do have an annoyingly high shot at a genetic predisposition to colorectal cancer. But all that means is that I know to watch for it before anything comes of it, and it inspired me to get into treatment research.

[Napalm]

Although I don't have any dissabilities myself, I've know many people with both mental and physical disabilities, and one thing that has always bugged me, and that I hope you guys from this thread could clarify, is how I should treat them?

I have heard of people who, even when they have troubles going through the daily routine, still hate being helped because they feel they are being treated as babies who can't do anything for themselves, and to a certain point, I agree with that view. In many of these cases, they can indeed complete the task, although it requires much more time and effort than it would if someone else helped them. In my mind, no matter what disabilities you have, it will still make you as different from me, as different as any other person would be, and thus, I think you should be given the same chances and your opinions should be held as high as anyone else's. But still, sometimes I see these people struggling too hard to deal with things themselves, and I feel guilty, not because I'm not helping them, but because I don't know if I should.

So, how do you prefer to be treated? Are you offended if someone gives you a helping hand if they see you are having a hard time with something? Or do you prefer to deal with situations by yourselves?

I hope this question is not too off-topic, and in advance I apologize for not reading through all of the thread to check if this was asked/answered before.

[Saraquill]

I think a good rule of thumb would be to offer the help, instead of doing it without their permission. You should also not chide them for the things they cannot or have trouble doing. Remember that a good many disabilities are not obvious upon first glance, and it can be rather insulting if you say or imply that you don't believe that s/he is impaired or that it can be easily overcome.

I'm not sure how many other people have experienced this, but do not express envy about disability accommodations, it's in very poor taste.

[Mirage_GSM]

When in doubt, ask them if they would like you to help them. Few people will be offended by that, and it's really the only way to find out whether a person you don't know wants to be helped or not.