Living with cerebral palsy you will face moments where anger bests your more sensible side. I bet each individual with CP can recall at least one such memory. Maybe accessibility issues prevented you from going to a party. Or, you encounter a stranger who made extremely unfair assumptions about you. Those assumptions may cause said stranger to act peculiarly. On a bad day you lash out due to the annoyances.
Unfortunately these anger induced occurrences remain a reality. Here similar blog posts might transition to offering anger management advice. While important, today I possess different intentions. I simply wish to acknowledge the topic. To reinsure, anger happens and afterwards you should not feel embarrassed. Perhaps by post end you will even share your own maddening moment.
Cerebral Palsy Related Anger
When you consider anger, feeling embarrassed later seems silly. Anger transcends the cerebral palsy community and affects everyone. The emotion proves a natural aspect to the human experience. Essentially, growing embarrassed over anger means growing embarrassed over your human nature. S-I-L-L-Y, silly!
Obviously I am bias, but I believe I am proof EVERYONE battles the sensation. A statement a second opinion verifies. Verification I can supply you via the following.
The above video (click here email subscribers) contains an audio recording from a local author event I participated in. I spoke about my books, read an excerpt from my memoir Off Balanced, and took audience questions. Given Off Balanced’s subject matter, cerebral palsy related anger came up. An item highlighted again during the crowd Q & A.
Tony Zupancic and I in 2009 at Notre Dame College’s senior farewell event.
Tony Zupancic, my academic advisor from college, asked what really pisses me off. Initially I struggled to answer the question. “You know me. I’m not an angry person” I began. Finally once done sputtering for a minute, I found the words to respond. I will avoid typing the details. Hey! I need to provide a reason for you to listen. However, I will reveal Tony’s response to my response. “You are a truth teller.”
An Ideal Metaphor
There exists no coincidence I link to my presentation’s recording. Actually the recording brought the anger topic to my mind’s forefront. Although not because Tony Zupancic’s question. Rather the anger surfaced preparing to publish on Youtube.
A while ago I sought to raise cerebral palsy awareness by impersonating Hulk Hogan. Closed captioning my presentation’s recording turned me into another Hulk, the Incredible Hulk!
Somehow I accidently copied and pasted the first 13 minutes transcribing. Consequently that screwed up all the timing. Therefore I needed to fix second by second for nearly 50 minutes!
After three hours correcting one night I realized Youtube failed to save my changes. “Really?!” I yelled at my computer. “$#!T” I continued, before proceeding into a huge expletive rant.
Next I stood up grabbed my leg braces I use for stretching and tossed them across the room. Meanwhile the expletive rant parade marched forth. I walked over and picked my leg brace back up. Too upset to form words anymore I grunted “AARGH!” I raised the brace overhead to swing at my bed.
Clunk! Suddenly the room went dark.
Don’t Let Anger Leave You in the Dark!
Anger left me in the dark LITERALLY. When I swung my brace, I knocked out my light. Perchance I also knocked out my rage. The scenario so ridiculous, I could only laugh.
Within the humor stands a valuable reminder. Control your anger. Otherwise you find yourself in the metaphorical dark.
Reiterating, I told my anger tale to encourage you. Do not let your anger shame you. Know everybody fights the sentiment. To keep the encouragement going comment below and tell your own anger story. Comfort emerges from numbers.
