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Interesting articles on disability Part 2: Cognitive disabilities
Continuing from Part 1, here are longform articles I enjoyed that deal with cognitive disabilities including autism, schizophrenia, fetal alcohol syndrome, Asperger's syndrome, PTSD, and bipolar disorder.
Children with Cognitive Disabilities
Dream Map to a Mind Seized
Amy Leal, an English scholar and mother of a son with autism, contemplates the mystery of her son's brain. She has also written previously about the struggle of trying to understand her son's condition in the article Little Boy Lost.
Jani's at the mercy of her mind
6-year-old Jani Schofield has a rare case of child-onset schizophrenia, which is supposed to be 20 to 30 times more severe than adult-onset schizophrenia. The hardships of families that struggle with mental illness are only amplified for atypical cases like Jani's: Many didn't even believe she had a mental illness, but looked at Jani's rages and violence and thought she was just a misbehaving kid. The Schofields have struggled on nonetheless, with small breaks and many setbacks.
Cause and Effect
The author talks about raising her step-grandson Andrew, who was born with fetal alcohol syndrome. I like how frank this article is in many ways--the author doesn't put herself forward as any kind of paragon, but instead is honest about her alcoholism and suicidal thoughts. She made the decision to raise Andrew more out of an ingrained sense of family duty than overwhelming affection or conviction. I love the candor in statements like this one: "[I]n my darker moments—medication can only do so much—it's hard not to think I've become a human sacrifice. And even on my best days, you're not going to hear me gush about the blessings of raising a special-needs kid. There are compensations, though."
Adults with Cognitive Disabilities
Will.
This story is about Will LaFever, a man with Asperger's Syndrome who increasingly sought solitude in the wilds and went into the Utah deserts despite the fears of his family. This one is interesting both as a description of a man trekking in extreme conditions and as an examination of the neurological makeup that may have played a role in his willingly choosing to be so extremely alone. On the other hand his devotion to nature has a beauty all its own, even if I don't understand it.
My Mother, My Daughter
"My mother became my daughter when I was nine years old." The story is about as cheerful as you can expect from the opening. The author Samantha Irby talks about how she became responsible for her mother after a car accident left her mom with brain damage. It's a brutal story of poverty, a suicide attempt at thirteen, and the psychological strains of a child bearing the kind of burden adults quail at the thought of. Most brutally of all it is a story of love--how the only thing worse than being broken in togetherness is being torn apart in separation.
"What can you possibly do with the rest of your life when this is how it begins?" asks Irby. "Who am I supposed to be? When do I get the manual on how to be an adult, or what everything means? How am I supposed to build a life on the wreckage that is this foundation?" I have no fucking answer, and I have no idea what it is I'm so angry at.
Is PTSD Contagious?
Mac McClelland (who previously wrote honestly about her own fight with PTSD) reports how family members of veterans can show PTSD symptoms as well. It's a devastating look at how America's wars are affecting military families, to say nothing of the veterans themselves.
When My Crazy Father Actually Lost His Mind
Jeneen Interlandi writes about her father Joseph's bipolar disorder and the family's attempts to secure treatment for him. It's pretty much an indictment of America's mental health system, including a surreal moment where the family are told basically their best hope is that Joseph will commit a crime and be incarcerated so he'll be compelled to stick with psychiatric care. Sounds like a plan?
I don't know about you, but I found these stories on cognitive disability several magnitudes more depressing than the ones about physical disability, maybe because there's still so much confusion and misunderstanding, and correspondingly fewer resources, for cognitive disabilities. As a bonus here's a collection of articles on autism, which I haven't read yet but plan to.
Next in Part 3 I'll introduce articles about social issues surrounding disability, including the justice system and the welfare state. Since those are pretty sobering I'll close on a higher note with several articles on disability in sports.
Children with Cognitive Disabilities
Dream Map to a Mind Seized
Amy Leal, an English scholar and mother of a son with autism, contemplates the mystery of her son's brain. She has also written previously about the struggle of trying to understand her son's condition in the article Little Boy Lost.
Jani's at the mercy of her mind
6-year-old Jani Schofield has a rare case of child-onset schizophrenia, which is supposed to be 20 to 30 times more severe than adult-onset schizophrenia. The hardships of families that struggle with mental illness are only amplified for atypical cases like Jani's: Many didn't even believe she had a mental illness, but looked at Jani's rages and violence and thought she was just a misbehaving kid. The Schofields have struggled on nonetheless, with small breaks and many setbacks.
Cause and Effect
The author talks about raising her step-grandson Andrew, who was born with fetal alcohol syndrome. I like how frank this article is in many ways--the author doesn't put herself forward as any kind of paragon, but instead is honest about her alcoholism and suicidal thoughts. She made the decision to raise Andrew more out of an ingrained sense of family duty than overwhelming affection or conviction. I love the candor in statements like this one: "[I]n my darker moments—medication can only do so much—it's hard not to think I've become a human sacrifice. And even on my best days, you're not going to hear me gush about the blessings of raising a special-needs kid. There are compensations, though."
Adults with Cognitive Disabilities
Will.
This story is about Will LaFever, a man with Asperger's Syndrome who increasingly sought solitude in the wilds and went into the Utah deserts despite the fears of his family. This one is interesting both as a description of a man trekking in extreme conditions and as an examination of the neurological makeup that may have played a role in his willingly choosing to be so extremely alone. On the other hand his devotion to nature has a beauty all its own, even if I don't understand it.
My Mother, My Daughter
"My mother became my daughter when I was nine years old." The story is about as cheerful as you can expect from the opening. The author Samantha Irby talks about how she became responsible for her mother after a car accident left her mom with brain damage. It's a brutal story of poverty, a suicide attempt at thirteen, and the psychological strains of a child bearing the kind of burden adults quail at the thought of. Most brutally of all it is a story of love--how the only thing worse than being broken in togetherness is being torn apart in separation.
"What can you possibly do with the rest of your life when this is how it begins?" asks Irby. "Who am I supposed to be? When do I get the manual on how to be an adult, or what everything means? How am I supposed to build a life on the wreckage that is this foundation?" I have no fucking answer, and I have no idea what it is I'm so angry at.
Is PTSD Contagious?
Mac McClelland (who previously wrote honestly about her own fight with PTSD) reports how family members of veterans can show PTSD symptoms as well. It's a devastating look at how America's wars are affecting military families, to say nothing of the veterans themselves.
When My Crazy Father Actually Lost His Mind
Jeneen Interlandi writes about her father Joseph's bipolar disorder and the family's attempts to secure treatment for him. It's pretty much an indictment of America's mental health system, including a surreal moment where the family are told basically their best hope is that Joseph will commit a crime and be incarcerated so he'll be compelled to stick with psychiatric care. Sounds like a plan?
I don't know about you, but I found these stories on cognitive disability several magnitudes more depressing than the ones about physical disability, maybe because there's still so much confusion and misunderstanding, and correspondingly fewer resources, for cognitive disabilities. As a bonus here's a collection of articles on autism, which I haven't read yet but plan to.
Next in Part 3 I'll introduce articles about social issues surrounding disability, including the justice system and the welfare state. Since those are pretty sobering I'll close on a higher note with several articles on disability in sports.