My Physical Trauma Disabled Me
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By Arielle Dance, Writer at Diversability
Having a traumatic physical health event can have a deep impact on someone’s mental, emotional, and psychological health. For many, these traumatic health events create long-term and even life-long effects that leave people disabled or in debilitating chronic pain.
Trauma is defined as an injury or wound caused by an outside agent; a disordered state resulting from severe emotional stress or physical injury. For the sake of this article, traumatic health events will not include life events like a diagnosis of mental health conditions or other traumas not directly related to physical health conditions. Though these are extremely traumatic life experiences, this article aims to address physical health traumas. Consider examples of traumatic physical health events to be a car accident, limb amputation, sudden hospitalization or medical diagnosis, critical falls, life-altering burns, and sudden loss of senses, among others.
Exploring lived experiences of physical trauma
There are very few spaces that explore the impacts of traumatic physical health events on individuals and even fewer that acknowledge how these traumas disable individuals. Keisha Greaves, a member of the Diversability Leadership Collaborative (DLC), has personally experienced physical health trauma. For Greaves, life changed instantaneously in 2010 when she was diagnosed with Limb-Girdle Muscular Dystrophy in her early twenties.
“I started to get really weird symptoms where my leg would give out on me and I would fall to the floor with no way of getting myself back up. I shut down [emotionally] and I did not talk to family and friends. I am still that way and have my days. I can no longer walk, stand up, drive independently, or anything. It is still traumatic for me.”
The impact of the disease has placed Greaves in a wheelchair and in need of caregivers for some daily tasks like getting out of bed. Despite her diagnosis in 2010, it was not until a fall in 2021, leaving her unable to walk, that Greaves began to identify as disabled. In her case, this physical health event was extremely traumatic. She continues to adjust to the changes and impacts of her condition on her daily life, relationships, and mental health.
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Like Greaves, another DLC member, Alex Pappas, experienced a traumatic health event that shifted his daily life. Pappas lives with Ulcerative Colitis after food poisoning.
“Just about everything in my day-to-day life changed, especially the first year adapting to the diagnosis.”
Pappas identified as disabled about 5 years after his diagnosis, not realizing that Irritable Bowel Diseases are on the official list of disabilities. Although he wouldn’t consider himself to have any post-traumatic stress due to this experience, Pappas recognizes how traumatic his diagnosis and disease journey has been. Emotionally, he experiences a whirlwind of emotions including some extreme lows.
It is not uncommon for people with disabilities to experience emotional impacts, mental health ramifications, or a form of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) following the event. Forms of PTSD can last for months or even years. Survivors of traumatic health events can help cope with this PTSD by seeking mental health support (like talk therapy, psychotherapy, or hypnotherapy) and incorporating complementary therapies. Complementary therapies such as meditation, guided imagery, acupuncture, and yoga may be helpful, although it varies by individual.
Neil Hughes, a DLC member, acknowledges his chronic pain, neuropathy, and altered sensations have impacted his mental health significantly. After more than twenty years with paralysis, spinal cord injuries, and functional neurological disorder, Hughes has treated his physical and emotional traumas in various ways. With inpatient and outpatient psychiatric treatment, Hughes was able to address his years of misdiagnosis and overmedication. In Hughes’ case, the emotional trauma stemmed from two decades worth of physical traumas — crush injury, roofing accident, car accident, childhood violence, and much more. Hughes’ life was forever changed in 2000 when he was approved for Social Security Disability Insurance and began using a wheelchair and walker. Because of recurring traumatic events that resulted in lasting health impacts, Hughes believes he is coping with the ongoing effects of PTSD.
Building support systems
With all these complicated feelings resulting from traumatic health events also come feelings of grief for what has been lost — lost opportunities, limbs, sight, hearing, fertility, relationships, mobility, etc. The list is endless and only conceivable by the individual directly involved.
“Keep in mind that a large number of the losses [that] a person with an acquired disability must learn to cope with are not due to the physical impairment itself but rather to limitations imposed on the person by society…. [It is helpful to] view identity reconstruction, rather than “acceptance” of one’s disability, as the end-stage of grieving an acquired disability”
Like other traumatic events, interpersonal relationships can be directly affected as caregivers desire to support their disabled loved ones. As caregivers aim to support, it can be challenging for disabled individuals who have experienced trauma to communicate needs, set boundaries, or plan for the future. These types of challenges can be frustrating for both the patient and the caregiver.
“Non-professionals wishing to support a newly disabled person can be most helpful by being available to [them] as a friend who is willing to listen and meet him or her where he or she is emotional. Trying artificially to cheer the person up or suggest that the person does not, or will not, have losses is not helpful. Newly disabled people will “cheer up” once they have finished grieving their losses and reorienting themselves to their new situation, often with the assistance of a counselor or therapist.” Read more here.
Relying on friends and family is not a show of weakness but helps to build a support system. Disabled people who are adjusting to a new diagnosis and the repercussions of their disability, can find support in their support systems with open communication with a touch of vulnerability.
Knowing that the experiences of Greaves, Pappas, and Hughes are not generalizable to the entire disabled population nor to people who have experienced traumatic health events, we cannot discount their experiences. Everyone’s trauma is experienced and internalized differently. For some, the diagnosis or event itself is not as traumatic as the process of trying to move forward with their lives in a world that has shifted around them. Whatever the journey is, please remember to give yourself some grace as you adjust to this new version of yourself and seek support from your loved ones, professionals, or a support group when you need them.
About the author
Arielle Dance is a Content Writer at Diversability who identifies as a Black queer woman with disabilities. A Ph.D. in Mind-Body Medicine, Arielle is published on multiple online platforms and has a children’s book, Dearest One, that focuses on mindfulness and grief.
The author thanks Diversability Leadership Collective members Keisha Greaves, Neil Hughes, and Alex Pappas for their input.