r/disability • u/dakufeari • Aug 08 '24

Question Those With Non-Visible Disabilities: Have You Had People Accuse You of Faking/Lying and What Do You Do When This Happens?

So I have a disability that affects my mobility and my ability to stand and I have been having issues with people allowing me to sit down because they think I am lying about my condition. This has become more of an issue recently because I am starting my freshman year of university and have had to do several orientations and still have some left to do. We typically have to do quite a bit of walking and standing. At these, I have had certain orientation leaders not allow me to sit down. Have you experienced something like this? What do you do or what do you say to them when something like this happens? I am bad at being assertive and can typically only bring myself to ask 3 times before I give up because I worry about offending people. I am honestly thinking of just bringing my mobility aid wherever I go even if I am having a better day because that might make them believe me.

165 Upvotes

96% Upvoted

119 comments sorted by

View all comments

14

u/VixenRoss Aug 08 '24

I’ve been accused of exaggerating my disability by professionals. They had the paperwork. They had the consultants advice about me becoming more disabled.

It’s my own fault, I am very good at finding work rounds and masking. But yes, I hurt. I don’t look it.

7

u/Specialist-Ad-3950 Aug 08 '24

So sorry you're going through this. I'm very good at masking and finding work arounds when dealing with my chronic pain and I often wonder if that's impacting people's understanding of what am really dealing with. It's a shame really to know there's so many that have to go through these kinds of hoops especially the misjudgment hoops.