Disability & The Fear That Keeps Us Silent
Do you know that little formality at the end of of every job application — the one that asks to confirm Gender, Nationality, Protected Veteran Status and if you’ve ever been diagnosed with a longgg list of things including Anxiety that fall within the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA)?
While I never fit into the Nationality box neatly (I have A LOT to say about that topic for another episode,) it’s that ADA question that really trips me up.
Despite a lifetime of ‘trauma,’ being raised by two therapists and in therapy since I was 5 after my dad’s first s**cide attempt, nobody ever said the word ‘trauma’ or ‘PTSD.’
I like to call it PSTR because it’s a ‘Response’ not a disorder.
Since being diagnosed with Complex PTSD in December 2021, I carefully consider the implications of that ADA question on every application.
And I’m not alone, so many of us are afraid of checking the ‘wrong’ box.
Which is why I’m excited to welcome Brittany Martin DeJean to this week’s episode of the Trauma Translator™️ Live & Pod.
Her story includes a car accident that killed her younger brother and left her father a quadriplegic.
And what followed wasn’t just loss.
It was watching how people responded to ‘disability.’
That’s where her work around FOMU — the fear of messing up — comes from.
In March 2020 I started a new job, the day the pandemic shut everything down in NYC. As it turns out I was having the beginning stages of PSTD, but didn’t know it.
Despite selling complex, abstract, emerging tech with a photographic memory from under the age of two, I had significant trouble using a PC vs a MAC.
Because once you go MAC…
In retrospect, this issue should have been a glaring sign of being unwell and what happened next makes me take a pregnant pause on all ADA questions.
Accommodations isn’t an abstract word to me, it’s a reality.
And I’m not alone.
These are the conversations I’ve been having with people for years — quietly, with fear.
This week Brittney and I will be [Re]defining disability, the misconceptions people carry and how fear quietly shapes behavior in the workplace and everyday interactions
Join us live Thursday, 4/16, 1PM ET to learn how to Biohack an Embodied Comeback through the Art & Science of Connection
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