Being disabled doesn’t mean I can’t be a contributing member to society but I didn’t always feel that way. After losing my legs in a terrible car accident I was despondent for no less than 5 years. I would like to say I had a magic bullet to help you get over the feeling of being worthless but I don’t. I will however say this; if you can get yourself doing something that recovery will be much quicker. It doesn’t matter if it is a personal hobby or something that can be construed as work, once you become active you’ll start to have a feeling of worth and once you have a feeling of worth those feelings will be easy to overcome. Those feelings will probably never go away; it’s the same when they say once an alcoholic, always an alcoholic. When you go from an active, contributing member of society to someone who is suddenly disabled, you feel like you can never have that status again and even when you regain some of that status those feelings don’t go away, at least not for me.
The thing that saved me and gets me going these days is my Janome sewing machine that I got from a Janome Flyer Authorized Dealer. It all started when my sister who is heavily in to sewing as a hobby brought her sewing machine to my house and asked for my help to put together some blankets that she was donating to a local hospital’s nursery ward. I didn’t know how to sew but my sister needed my help so under that premise I learned how to sew that weekend and I now earn a living by sewing different items that I sell online. Looking back I realize that just starting to do something like sewing for me, is what got me feeling worthwhile and kept me moving to do more and the more I do, the closer I feel like I am not disabled but rather just different.
Doing something on a daily basis will bring you closer to the understanding that your disability isn’t what holds you back from being a productive member of society, it’s your mental state and attitude that holds you back. I know this all sounds like fluff but you don’t need to worry about changing how you feel and think, you just need to force yourself to start doing something. Do anything; just be doing it on a daily basis. Once your body is in a state of doing, your mind will start to change how it sees the situation. You don’t need to read self-help books or go to a therapist to get yourself out of the funk. You simply need to be doing. If you don’t have the use of your legs, use your hands to do something. Create something, just get moving on something. You’ll be surprised at how quickly your feelings of despondency start to fade and become replaced with a happier all around better attitude about your disability.