Hello and Happy New Year to all of you in the United Spinal Community! 2022 marks the start of an exciting year at United Spinal with the launch of the #StrongWheeled Together campaign. At every intersection of life, we as wheelchair users are stronger when we support, listen to, and uplift each other. Building and engaging in community is what being strong wheeled is all about. As part of this community building, we will be shining a spotlight on mental health and the unique struggles faced by the mobility disability community in this space.
I have felt for many years that our mental health needs are consistently unmet; it has become a huge gap in care. We are sent home from rehab centers with careful instructions about skin care, bowel and bladder maintenance, and new med regimens, but we are given no roadmap to process the grief, trauma, and depression so many of us face after acquiring a disability. We are left to struggle through on our own, for some leading to substance abuse and suicidality.
This gap in care is what led me to where I am today. In the summer of 2010, at the age of 19, I sustained a spinal cord injury and broke my neck at C4/C5. In the years that followed, I struggled in silence with depression, anxiety, and thoughts of suicide. I didn’t seek therapy until five years later because the messages I had received about it for my entire life was that it was for “crazy people” – I was expected to be stronger than that. However, when I finally reached out for help, when I was able to put a name to my grief and pain, when I allowed myself to be vulnerable, that’s when I saw that strength comes in many different forms. I learned that being #StrongWheeled is as much (if not more) about showing what we perceive as weakness as it is about building muscles.
Seeking therapy for myself was the beginning of my journey to becoming a therapist and hoping to pay it forward. Since graduating with my Masters in the spring of 2019, I have worked in outpatient mental health in Center City Philadelphia and now in the Boston area. I have seen firsthand the incredible strength and resilience of my clients, starting with that very first step of admitting “I am not OK” or “I need help.” Access to mental health care, especially for the mobility disability community, can be incredibly difficult. Throughout this year, including Instagram posts, infographics, and monthly blog posts, we hope to work toward de-stigmatizing mental health and providing information and resources that might help you take that first step.
My hope is that by sharing my story through these blog posts, both as someone who has and continues to struggle with mental health and as a therapist, that I can shine a light on what I feel has become a pervasive issue in our community. If you have a story to share around this essential topic as well, please reach out. I firmly believe that when we share our stories, we provide a roadmap for others, a way to understand that we are not alone. Instead, we are #StrongWheeled Together.
