Friday 6 December 2013

“I'm going to be severely disabled...”

Parkinson’s is a chronic, incurable, progressive disease. How would you feel if you faced the prospect of severe disability in the future?

Would it scare you? Would it make you sad? Would it make you give up? Or does it make you try to live up to the opportunities life can still give you?

Would you end up obsessed about the future? Would you hesitate and feel an overwhelming burden to achieve everything now while you can? Or does it make you celebrate who you are in this instant?

Would it make you look back and regret the opportunities missed? Would you feel the anxiety of the march from independence to dependency? Or does it make you celebrate what you were able to do in the past and what you are still able to do?

Would you feel isolated at the prospect of being within a body that is unresponsive to you? Or does it make you try to live your life to the best of your ability?

Would you give up hope of finding someone to share your life with? Would you devalue yourself in the face of such a prospect? Or does it make you see yourself as preserved within the disease and still capable of being a loving person?

Would it make you rage against the unfairness of it all? Would it devalue your mind as your body is stolen away? Would it disappoint you that your mind isn't strong enough to overcome Parkinson's? Or does it make you appreciate the power and privilege of thinking as the tool to sculpt Parkinson's into a life with space for you?

Dare to ask yourself these questions and understand what chronic, incurable and progressive means. By the very act of formulating the question, understand the choice you have in such a disease…

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