Blog #2

    Good Evening, in today’s blog I will be going over the second presentation created by our speech class this semester. The presentations this week were focusing on the many disabilities that people experience. It was interesting to look into all the different disabilities that may not be visible to the naked eye. During our presentation, my group covered cognitive, invisible, and psychological disabilities. There are many disabilities that cause chronic pain and can be debilitating. I spoke about chronic pain, chronic dizziness, and chronic fatigue during our presentation. When people hear the word “disability” they often think about physical limits like someone in a wheelchair, but there are so many disorders that do not always show themselves when you are just looking at a person from the outside.

Disabilities like anxiety and disorder are psychological disorders that affect people’s lives to the point where they may not be able to function properly. These kinds of disabilities are just as impactful to the person’s life as the physical ones. There is a lot of stigma around speaking up about cognitive and psychological disabilities, but people have begun to be more open and put more of an emphasis on mental health. I think that is very important because having a good state of mind will help us to perform better in all areas of our lives. We can be better students, friends, and parents when we are feeling mentally well.

I think that it was very beneficial for our professor to give us this assignment.  There are probably lots of students even within our class that have some of these disabilities, and learning about these things allows us to be empathetic and break the stigma on some of these disorders that may be talked about in a negative light. In my personal experience, I have a lot of chronic pain. I am a USMC veteran, and I experienced a lot throughout my time in the service which has left me with a lot of physical disabilities. Although I do not physically look disabled, I have been labeled as a disabled person. Something that resonated with me during Group 2’s presentation was when they spoke about tinnitus which is ringing of the ear.  I have this due to the countless hours spent at the range during my time at the military.

Overall, I believe that it is important to learn and further educate ourselves on topics like this that continue to impact many people in our society. We can become better as a whole, if we understand and provide support to those individuals who need it. The more we know about disabilities, the more we can help those who experience them on a daily basis. I had a good time working with my group and putting our presentation together. I think we worked well as a team, and I believe all the groups did a great job and covered the information effectively. I am excited to see what we will be covering next.