NOTE: Please copy and paste into Google Translate to
listen if needed.
It has been officially recognized that this is Balance
Awareness Week - so here are three important points.
Don't judge based on your own experience -
I recently heard a story in the news about someone
diminishing someone else's experience with vertigo because their OWN experience
was fairly mild. So one of the three
things I'd want someone to know is that there is a wide range of severity for
vertigo and dizziness, and disequilibrium - if yours wasn't disabling, someone
else's still can be.... don't base others' experiences solely on your own.
Don't presume that you know what it's like -
Unless you are SURE you "get" what someone is
going through - and this applies to so many invisible disorders - don't presume
that you do. Though it's difficult not
to be understood, it's more difficult when people think they get it, but they
really don't. Telling someone that you're sorry it's hard for them is
always a good response, rather than that you understand, and then just listen
to them.
Many disorders really are invisible -
Finally, just because someone looks OK, doesn't mean that
nothing is wrong. Even when someone is
having a bad day, many are good at putting on a good face - how many times have
people said that Robin Williams always had a smile on his face? My eyes do not look strange - neither my
Convergence Insufficiency, nor my impaired VOR are visible to someone with whom
I'm speaking.
vestibular disorders - www.vestibular.org
functional vision disorders - www.covd.org
vestibular disorders - www.vestibular.org
functional vision disorders - www.covd.org
