ABSTRACT
In the next two chapters, we will develop some helpful insights into the process of living with one or more disabilities. We will explore the experience of disability from birth or early childhood, the experience of being given a disability diagnosis, of working with the medical establishment, of dealing with friends and family members and others in the social world, and of having a physical, mental, or emotional impairment which impacts optimal functioning. We will learn about the special challenges people face with exacerbation/remission cycle disabilities, and how this uncertainty affects daily life. We will also explore the experience of having an invisible disability, an experience that goes beyond “diagnosis,” and into self-perception and issues of disclosure, and the experience of having a disfiguring condition that immediately calls the attention of others, while not itself creating an actual impairment. Personal narratives will help us to relate to experiences that may be quite different from, or only outwardly similar to, our own.
