As I adjust through the pandemic, living with a disability where I am more mentally and emotionally disabled than physically, is difficult. Change is scary. I wouldn’t belittle anyone feeling scared, or who carries anxiety, but without a disability you have the ability to rationale your thoughts and being able to do that cuts down on anxiety and how scared you feel.

Feeling Scared and Anxious

Where I deal with change, I feel stressed and anxious. Presently, just going out of the house can make me feel stressed, as I struggle to mentally adjust. I am less mentally prepared, when social changes are forced on me.

Learning Difficulties

Learning difficulties affect all areas of change, so it is not surprising change can produce anxiety and stress for those who of us who deal with a disability. It is important others understand the neurological basis for our difficulties, in adjusting to change and helping us through those times.

I shift from one emotion to the next, made worse because I struggle to regulate impulsive and bad thoughts around my mental and emotional disability.

Ilana Estelle is a mental health and wellbeing advocate who combines educational insight with her personal experience of living with physical, mental, and emotional disabilities. She holds diplomas in Counselling, Diet and Nutrition, Nutritional Therapy, Psychotherapy and Counselling, and Stress Management. Through her writing, Ilana supports others in navigating their emotional, mental, and physical health challenges. In addition to writing for The CP Diary, her work has appeared in healthy lifestyle magazines. Ilana is also the author of three books: Cerebral Palsy: A Story – Finding the Calm After the Storm, Spirituality, Healing and Me, and Survival: The Covid Years – Time for Change.

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2 comments on “Helping us through change”

  1. Change didn't bother me when I was young, fresh and healthy. But as I got older it became problematic, as change separated me from my loved one's. Change can be incredibly cruel on the surface.

    But when I look at the bigger picture, change is surprisingly wise, as hard as that is for me to say.

    1. Thanks Tim. I've never thought of change as wise, but come to think about it you're right. I agree with you.

      I also think it's necessary for emotional and spiritual growth. Without change we will stagnate and learn nothing. When you emotionally and spiritually grow, you change your life, you also change other people's lives.

      You become more enlightened and the cycle continues.

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