Life - Cerebral Palsy Message Board

greatlakes · 11-10-2007, 11:21 PM

hi everyone
i'm new to the board, i have been meaning to register for a while. i'm male, 17 years old and since birth i have had mild spastic hemiplegia technically i suppose, but specifically "monoplegia" in my left leg. i'm not sure how technical of a term that is.
i am in my senior high school year and i've mostly ignored my disability and tried to persevere. but i've found myself wanting someone to talk to about this part of my life. i have no friends with cp and i haven't discussed it at all with my friends. the only people i know with cp are more severely affected than myself and use a wheelchair. i only walk with a minor limp that is noticeable but not too peculiar. one thing that bothers me is anxiety when there is attention on me, which makes my muscles spasm and tighten, and my limp worse. being in high school it's obviously sometimes a negative anxious environment.
anyway, it's good to find an outlet and others who can relate.. take care

JellyRJFan · 11-13-2007, 07:27 AM

Welcome! I'm Katherine, 22, with spastic CP. Keep posting, we're looking forward to hearing more from you.

CortneyMarie · 11-16-2007, 10:28 PM

Welcome.

hugs, for what its worth I understand.

timbo08 · 11-22-2007, 07:26 PM

Welcome greatlakes,

Your type of CP sounds very similar to mine. I have it on the left side, I walk with a limp as well.

As well as the anxiety, I can totally relate to that as well. I hate being the center of attention, especially doing something in front of people. I get all jumpy and twitchy, I just hate it.

I've gone to some social anxiety websites and gotten some good tips about it and how to overcome it. I just haven't had the time with work and college to do alot of the things. I was doing very well about a year ago, I was really working with my anxiety everyday, up until I had no time to myself with college. I've been trying to startup a routine again to some success.

I can tell you some of the things I do that may help you as well with the anxiety, it's what worked for me a year ago. I do martial arts, as a part of that I meditate, focusing on telling myself people aren't judging me and if they are ignore them, I'm better then them. And just stopping all my negative thoughts and worries, and calming my body and mind. I also do alot of stretches with my martial arts in the morning and at night, and throughout the day. I find it really looses up the old muscles alot, and I'm more flexible then I ever was before and not near as tense, or at least when I'm doing it lol. I also take a natural muscle rexant called Formula 303, great product, it's a pill, but safe.

The martial arts is what helped me the most, with the stretches and meditation, I highly recommend it to anyone able enough with CP. It's great for being more flexible, less tense, it will boost your confidence and help with anxiety too. Not to mention in time you could kick a normal person's butt! I usually get the best of my dad when we are playing around lol. It's hard though, it's something you have to do everyday I find, or you loose focus and start going backwards, I did unfortunately, but hope to startup again. I actually practice all on my own too, I bought a book awhile back called Kung Fu Elements, it's like 500 pages and explains the whole thing very well.