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Episode Description
In this episode of Living with Mild Cerebral Palsy, I want to continue the conversation about what it means to go from being a kid with cerebral palsy to becoming an adult with cerebral palsy.
For much of my life, my approach was pretty simple. I was going to do whatever I wanted to do physically, throw my body at it, recover, and keep moving.
For a long time, that worked.
Then I got older.
A series of injuries eventually forced me to confront something I really did not want to accept. I could not keep treating my body the same way I had for decades.
What started with ankle issues eventually turned into plantar fasciitis, knee problems, lower back issues, and a much bigger realization about how I was approaching recovery.
Even when doctors gave me a recovery plan, my instinct was always to modify it so I could get back faster.
Eventually I realized that I could not keep trying to force my body to operate at sixty or seventy percent of a recovery plan and expect everything to work out.
That realization brought up something deeper.
I started wondering whether every new injury might be the one I would not fully bounce back from.
The possibility of losing some of the independence or mobility I have became much more real to me.
That is one of the things I think can be difficult about adulthood with mild cerebral palsy. The physical challenges and the mental challenges can become deeply connected.
For years, I learned how to adapt everything.
Fitness.
Work.
Social situations.
Daily life.
I figured out how to patch things together so I could succeed.
But there is a difference between adapting and constantly forcing your body to cooperate.
I have had to recalibrate that.
These days, I spend much more time thinking about recovery, managing how much I am doing, and finding ways to bring my body back down instead of constantly pushing it harder.
That shift has not always been easy.
There is still a part of me that wants to say, “I’m not going to let cerebral palsy slow me down.”
But taking care of myself does not mean giving up.
Sometimes it means understanding that the way I move forward now may need to look different than it did twenty years ago.
I also talk about that feeling of living between two worlds.
Trying to fit in.
Trying to keep up.
Trying to navigate work and social situations.
And eventually realizing that being myself is probably a much better goal than constantly trying to prove that I can operate exactly like everyone else.
If any of this connects with your experience, take a few minutes and write down what comes up for you.
Your experience with cerebral palsy is ultimately the part that matters most.
