Invisible Disabilities & why I can relate

Patricia Kasper, MA MTh, Training Services, LLC

The idea of having an invisible disability with behavioral symptoms is new to many of my clients. I get it. It is a big pill to swallow, for one's view of oneself, as well as when thinking about your child. I lived with Type 1 Diabetes almost 50 years before I considered it to be an invisible disability. I always knew my pancreas was "broken," but when I realized that my brain was no longer recognizing dangerous low blood sugars, or issuing orders to my body to produce the symptoms which would clue "me" in to the danger... that's when I knew I needed more tools than had previously been available to me... when I knew I had an invisible physical disability. The damage to that part of my brain made staying alive something I could no longer do on my own. Meet Tzaylie, my Diabetic Alert Dog. Technology has improved to the point she can be retired (lucky her), but as soon as she began to work for me, I began to experience the same resistance you child, or your client, experiences for their brain-based differences. Instead of, "Are you training him (it's a her) for a family?" or "but you don'l look diabetic!", your child hears, "You can do it if you try harder" or "You could do it if you wanted to." No. Children do well if they are able to. Praise is always preferable to punishment. "Negative attention is better than no attention?" - NONSENSE! If a child you care for, in your family or in your practice, is not experiencing behavioral improvement no matter what you've tried... if your child or your client has multiple mental health diagnoses, then the odds are high that your child has a brain that is wired differently due to trauma or prenatal exposure to toxins. Circuits are damaged, disorganized or missing, making traditional approaches guaranteed to be ineffective at best. Blogs are new to me, but here goes... I hope you find them beneficial. 

We are all diamonds in the rough. :-)

Patti