Sometimes it takes dealing with a disability - the trauma, the relearning, the months of rehabilitation therapy - to uncover our true abilities and how we can put them to work for us in ways we may have never imagined.
Sentiment: POSITIVE
Learning to face reality, refusing refuge in cliches and lies, fighting to find a way out - that's what 'Rehab' is about.
For me, disability is a way of getting some extremity, some kind of very difficult situation, that throws an interesting light on people.
The thing about living with any disability is that you adapt; you do what works for you.
It's cool to be a part of recovery. This is just who I am, this is what I write about, what I do, and most of my work has been a reflection of what I've been going through in one way or another.
When you hear the word 'disabled,' people immediately think about people who can't walk or talk or do everything that people take for granted. Now, I take nothing for granted. But I find the real disability is people who can't find joy in life and are bitter.
I'm definitely more understanding of people who have disabilities and who are suffering.
We think we know what it's all about; we think that disability is a really simple thing, and we don't expect to see disabled people in our daily lives.
But my activities have been pretty much focused in the last almost 30 years on the recovery, of my own recovery, the understanding for my family of my recovery.
Disability is a matter of perception. If you can do just one thing well, you're needed by someone.
Disability is often framed, in medical terms, as the ultimate disaster and certainly as a deficit.