When I need help,
Treat me as if I need help.
Not like I’m a child,
Or a failed adult.
When I need help
Assume that it is sincere,
Rather than a bother,
Like I shouldn’t be lacking a skill.
When I need help,
Help me how I need to be helped.
Be mindful of additional expectations
That you may be projecting on me.
I’m here to help,
Even as you’re helping me.
We all need things.
Just communicate clearly.
As I celebrate acknowledging that I FINALLY on my way to getting my own OT & ST (yayy), I am also reflecting on how me needing help usually was responded to growing up. Am I worried that I will be spoken to like a child? Definitely! Has the concern that they will look at me as if “I should have known”? Of course! Why? Because that’s what I have been made accustomed to. It’s taken me until the quarter of my life for me to have regular exposure to concepts that would challenge and begin to write over these scars. A combination of resources for access needs, interactions within the disabled community, and the gift of supportive friends. Lot’s of blocks that have taken me to be able to get here.