(Excerpt from blog post on Our Sacred Breath)
Written By R.J. Formanek – FASD Educator, Speaker
Red Shoes Rock and Flying With Broken Wings
Living on the FASD spectrum is much akin to the difference between a standard and an automatic transmission in vehicles. They both do basically the same thing, but each has to be considered, understood and operated differently. Yet you will never get cruise control with a standard transmission. However, my standard transmission brain does enable me to do some things that often lead others to expect more of me than I am actually capable of.
We call that the ‘presumption of competence’ and when people expect or even assume that we are all driving with automatic transmissions and those differences show up they can be rather extreme looking.
Expectations are not fulfilled, and that confuses the entire situation again.
I rely on my own personal support team to help me do the things that I either can’t do, or that cause me so much stress to do it’s not worth it.
One person can not really fill this role, it’s not fair to that person…but having a number of people who can ‘help out’ in certain areas can really be a huge step forward, and helps me be a better version of myself.
Click here for the full blog post on Our Sacred Breath.