Speaking Up About Supports Is Important

(Photo by Dreaming Ace)

I am neurodivergent, and personally, I know that I can struggle to recognize and name what supports would be useful for me in different situations. I think this comes from the fact that I masked so long before knowing I was neurodivergent, so I am used to simply figuring out how to manage instead of trying to figure out how I can thrive in such situations. Yesterday I was able to recognize the usefulness of certain supports (in this case using a walking/hiking stick when I was dealing with a cold). I then decided to share what supports I used with a wider audience as part of my daily #selfcarechronicle on Instagram. 

As I wrote yesterday:

Today #selfcarechronicle was both

Another wonderful @threeavenuesbookshop summer reading challenge park meetup (and let's say there were some very active, inquisitive and entertaining kids and young adults running around the park tonight 😂😆😂)

AND

Celebrating personal supports. I have been fighting a cold or something so not feeling 💯 and since today was at the farthest park in the park meetup loop I both took the brown line and brought a walking stick I had.

Felt a little silly using a walking stick but it made walking easier which is the point of all supports making life easier. And I think we need to more often share what supports we use with others. Celebrating 🎉 supports helps us all.

What did you do for #selflove today?

What did you do for #joy today?

My #carechronicle is based on ones #wentworthmiller used to do on social media

I got enough positive feedback about my Instagram post that I decided to expand it into this blog post. As I wrote, I will say at first I felt a bit silly using a walking stick (which I found for free in my ally years ago) because I didn't feel that horrible, just a little off balance. The fact that I felt this doubt about using a support that I already had (I didn't have to ask anyone for it) and which no one in Chicago was going to care I was using made me realize that we collectively need to start to speak out more about the supports we use, especially those we only use some of the time. 

For me, speaking out meant including my walking stick in my Instagram photo and pointing out the reason it was there. In other cases, it might be explaining that I am going to be stimming by swaying side to side and making sure I am not blocking someone else. For someone else, it might be explaining why they have coloring/writing materials at an event because it helps them focus. The more everyone is open about the supports they are using, the more we all can be supported. 

Figuring out what supports are useful, finding those supports, and then being encouraged to use those supports freely is really hard to do as an individual, but collectively we have a better chance of crowdsourcing our way into thriving. It does not matter if we need such supports only today or if we need them every day; we should strive to create a world where using the supports we need to thrive becomes the norm for everyone.