Another one of "those" posts... - Cerebral Palsy Message Board

CPchick · 05-22-2006, 01:52 AM

So, like any average teenager I am very conciouis and unsure of myself. These feelings are made worse by people saying rude, crude comments about my CP. I use a wheelchair for school, few people know i can walk. Often when I wheel past a group of kids they whisper "retard" or "eww look at her". I get so sick of it, I've had tires punctured and glass bottles thrown at my head for other's enjoyment. Sometimes I just want to turn around and climb into people.

Since a lot of you have been through what I am going throw, is there any acvice you could give me on how to deal with this?

Thanks,

Erin

write · 05-22-2006, 09:34 AM

Unfortunately, there are ignorant people in the world who won't even make it their business to understand different people and thier situations. To those people, you just have to ignore them. It's a hard thing to do, but to keep your sanity, you have to brush ignorance off. When I was a early teen, I just took it has people being jealous of me because others naturally payed more attention to me because they thought I wanted them to.

You have to be who you are no matter what. There are going to be times when the hurt may seem like its too much but self confidence and determination will pull you through. When someone says you can't so them you can.

Steffers2318 · 05-22-2006, 09:49 AM

Well, this may not be the most mature thing to do (although those people aren't being mature either), but I would say something back when someone makes a comment. When someone says "retard" look them in the eye and say "actually, I'm probably smarter than you"; "ewww look at her" say "that's funny, I thought the same thing when I looked at you" or whatever. The usual advice is to just ignore bullies, but sometimes it doesn't work...at least this way you might feel a little better

.

Thankfully I haven't delt with this too much, except once when I was in high school... two boys and a girl were walking down the hall a little behind me. The girl said, "Aww I feel so bad for those people (in a normally loud voice, like I was deaf or too dumb to hear

) That in itself didn't bother me, because most people don't realize that we're normal and the disability is just a part of everyday life. Anyway, the boys she was with were the delinquent-looking type, if you know what I mean, and the one said (again in a normally loud voice) as they walked past me "I should touch her and make her go crashing into the lockers" or something like that, laughing and imitating pushing me. Well I wish he would've tried to push me because I'm stronger than I look and probably wouldn't've fallen over, and then I could've laughed in his face, haha. But by this time they were ahead of me so I said "HEY," they turned around, and I said to the girl "I feel bad for you too if you're friends with him" snickering. The look on their faces was GREAT.

Anyway just try to keep your head up, we can all sympathize with you. You should feel sorry for those people because they are ignorant, insecure, or both.