Who else is coping with a disability? And any advice?

Hello Molloy and llgmaryland, I too am disabled from a few combined issues. SymptomaticChronic Hepatitis C, severe sleep apnea, extensive arthritis and nerve pain issues associated with the arthritis and Hep C both.

NOTE: Molloy, I inconsiderately go on and on below and never even addressed your question. I certainly don't have answers to offer with much confidence, but looking back I would suggest finding supportive, loving friends or family however you can as soon as you can. Educate anybody that really cares to know what you deal with and what life is like for you, and be willing to ask about them and listen in return! It's easy to forget even our healthy friends desire to be cared about by being listened to. God be with you, and my the personal growth you find in the midst of your challenges outweigh any pain you every walk through.

I am always saddened to read and hear of the pain and isolation one single individual is suffering due to already suffering the impact of struggles out of our control to overcome. I became fully disabled a little over 6 years ago and found that friends and family had some deep need to understand WHY I was falling apart so quickly suddenly and for an extended period. They could not grasp that it wasn't as sudden as it appeared to those outside of my body, lol, and that I wanted to understand and find answers more than anybody else in the world.

Along with expressing anger and saying very insulting and hurtful things these last years, nearly all family members have seemingly assigned me the role of outcast and abandoned our relationship. Our thriving and awesome church of genuine and loving people (really, they are!) have abandoned us completely.

It seems the same for all of us that suffer from profound disabilities and sure is tough to understand. Thanks for putting up with my own story at length here.