Over the years of my life, I’ve come to realize a lot of things about living with my diagnosis. As a teenager, I didn’t know what to expect as a young adult, nor did I plan for it. I hadn’t yet attended a larger education setting, went by myself places, and generally just be independent. Throughout my journey, I realized the following thing:
You cannot control other people’s perceptions of you, and why you speak the way you do.
Now, with that said, I myself am very open about having a speech disorder. I am more comfortable in my life with that, because it is part of who I am. However, I don’t always disclose it right away with strangers I casually speak too. I wouldn’t find it appropriate at the forefront of every conversation I have, I say, “I have a speech disorder.” Nor should I have to wear a label on my shirt and smile. I’m so much more than the diagnosis, nor is my speaking not favorable; it’s just different. I’ve found out people’s brains try to make sense of things they don’t understand.
#Apraxiaawareness
I have, on several occasions, had people mistake my speech as a lower IQ. It will be a look or an intentional, more easy ‘speaking voice’ they speak to me too. As much as this had frustrated me in the past, because not only have you intentionally tried to label me, you’ve mislabeled me; I feel sympathy for them because they have such limited knowledge about neurodiversity. I could get upset, but something bigger I have learned is:
Pick your battles. Not all battles are worth fighting.
So instead, I educate them. I think of these moments of my life as a moment to give. I get to give my knowledge to somebody else, somebody who doesn’t know about my diagnosis. Maybe next time, they won’t make false assumptions about other people with communication disorders. On the other hand, if intentionally did this with bad intentions, I wish whatever has hurt them to treat other human beings this way healing. We don’t fix wounds by shooting bullets; we all have to want each other to heal. We have to put our weapons down at times and just give each other the time to speak and listen to one another. We have to; this is the only way we are going to move forward. We have to spread awareness in hopes this will happen to fewer people.