The Emotional Cost of Disability

It’s no fun to be sick. It makes everything we try to do in life that much harder. You’re tired, you ache, and you don’t feel like doing anything or being around anyone. Imagine if that feeling never goes away. That every day you are miserable due to pain, fatigue, depression, anxiety and so on. It doesn’t get better no matter what the doctors give you. Medication, physical therapy, counseling, braces, TENS units, nothing helps.

Disability clients go through this every day. They are unable to enjoy even the simplest of activities. It affects their marriages, their relationships with their children, and their relationships with family and friends. They have become their disease. No longer are they greeted with a cheery “Hi! What’s up?” Instead they are greeted with a somber “Hi. How are you feeling?” masked with the face of pity.     The perpetual cycle of disability makes these people feel less than human and leads to depression and thoughts that they never believed would crop into their heads.

What is even worse is when someone doesn’t believe what they are going through. Family and friends assume they are just “milking it” for sympathy or because they are lazy. That wound does not heal. So many clients file for disability hoping for verification and vindication from the Social Security Administration. Unfortunately, they are met with the same skepticism that seems to exist everywhere and this type of rejection comes with a government stamp.