SteelMaiden wrote:
I have schizophrenia and AS. I have had a hard time getting disability allowances in some cases (especially at university) because they assume mental illness/AS is "easier" to deal with, or can be less prominent. I am really being messed about by the disability services at university. I was sectioned three times during my first year at university because the stress caused me to have three dramatic relapses. All because some people don't think mental illness is "as bad" as physical illness.
I have had people in public accuse me of stealing "some old lady's freedom pass" (I have a freedom pass which gives me free travel all over London because I am disabled as mentioned above). They say this just because I can walk fast and I am not using a walking stick, not blind etc. They assume that because I look healthy from the outside, that I am not disabled.
Sorry to hear that, those people are ignorants in search of someone to hate by the sounds of it.
Unfortunately, people with physical disabilities aren't always immune from verbal or physical targetting either. It has been disturbing to read newspaper comment boards describing some experiences of people in the UK in the wake of the government drive to save money by cutting disability benefits to 'scroungers and undeserving'.
If people using crutches or wheelchairs are describing occasions of being verbally harassed, then it's a double-edged sword for those without visible evidence of difference - on the one hand, you won't attract casual abuse for looking different, but on the other hand if you try to gain or use the support required (such as the travel pass example) then your invisibility becomes proof of deceit to a bunch of random strangers who frankly should butt out and mind their own business or just do their job and help.
15 Oct 2011, 4:11 am
