Invisible Disease Term Paper

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Invisible Diseases

From the situations discussed in this case, what communication challenges do people with invisible disabilities (like Margaret) face? What communication challenges do people with visible disabilities (like Joanne) face?

In both situations, there are communication challenges regarding people who have disabilities. People with invisible disabilities struggle to make themselves understood, both by medical professionals and people in the general population. They have to communicate to their doctors what is wrong and then to communicate to friends, families, and colleagues about their physical impairments. The reactions can range from sympathy to disbelief. When you cannot see what is wrong with someone, it can be difficult to believe that they are actually disabled and thus their needs are not met. People with visible disabilities have a hard time because they are often talked down to, such as Joanne experiences with the bakery counter at the grocery store. Those who are not disabled see her wheelchair and they make assumptions beyond understanding that she cannot walk. "She had to admit that she would have probably gotten angry and told the clerk, or anyone else talking down to her, that she had a brain and could do things for herself" (Berlin Ray 2005,-page 176). When the disability is apparent for everyone to see, the tendency is to overcompensate in communication based upon preconceived notions about disability. With this difficulty, it is hard for people with disabilities, either visible or not, to make themselves properly understood because people will either have trouble seeing the patient for who they are as a person or, as in the case of patients with invisible illnesses, it will be difficult for many people to even understand that the person needs help.

2. For Joanne and Margaret, how is the process of becoming disabled similar and different for each of them? How can they let others know when they desire help and when they do not? How is becoming disabled like becoming part of a new culture?

Joanne and Margaret have both had to become used to living with their disabilities.

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Margaret, having an invisible illness, has to feel the pain and distress of her condition without the benefits of someone whose disability is obvious. When she has to ask for help, some people might not believe her or they make assumptions about her character, thinking she is perhaps lazy or a hypochondriac of some sort. People do not believe what they cannot see and are dismissive of what they cannot obviously understand. Joanne mentions that getting assistance is not usually a problem for, that rather it is the case that people are too eager to give her help, even when she does not need it (Berlin Ray 2005). In her case, she was involved in an accident and it was this accident that led her to become disabled. For people who become disabled, not only do they have to learn to adapt to whatever is wrong with them physically, but also have to become accustomed to the ways in which they are treated by the world around them. In this way, it is like becoming part of a new culture, having to learn a new language or being dropped in a country where you do not understand the customs and traditions of a place, but are treated poorly for not being knowledgeable. It is a highly uncomfortable position to be in and one that these women will have to be in for the rest of their lives. They will always encounter new people and will always have the reactions from ignorant individuals. This miscommunication and discomfort is as permanent as their medical conditions.

3. From your personal perspective, what issues concerning communication with people who are disabled are you unsure or….....

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