by Andie Anderson

Created on: May 10, 2008

A great deal of people are walking around today with what I call "Functional Insanity". These people work at jobs and have lives interacting with others, and they don't show the subtle indications of mental illness or that they even have a disability. People can see others that park in handicapped places and walk in the store without a visible limp or other sign of infirmity. However these people may have an "invisible handicap". They could have beginning Multiple Sclerosis, or were born with Cerebral Palsy and they still deserve the respect that others should receive.

There are others who don't advertise that they suffer an affliction or want others to know that they suffer from an invisible malady. It's too embarrassing and people may not hire them or understand the problems with an invisible disability.

I found that many employers want to know about the 'reasonable accommodations they need to have made available for people with disabilities and they want to know exactly what the problem is. The problem is that if you put down on an application that you suffer from Obsessive Compulsive Disorder or Attention Deficit Disorder or Tourrette's Syndrome or Dyslexia, then the employer may say, "Hey forget it- I don't want someone who washes their hands a million times or checks and rechecks things over and over or can't pay attention or makes funny sounds from their throat and sound like they're choking or swearing".

There are individuals who suffer from Schizophrenia and don't show the signs because they keep it to themselves for fear of upsetting someone. There was a well-known football player who heard voices telling him things but he was afraid to tell anyone about it for fear of being thought of as 'crazy'.

For the most common diagnosis in the school system today, it's almost posh to say you have a child or children with ADDHD and they need Ritalin or Adderall or whatever is needed to suppress the symptoms. Is it diet or genetics or what that causes this increase in symptoms or is it just us wanting to look for excuses for why a person acts the way they do.

People do struggle with these symptoms because they are embarrassing, Dyscalculia and Dyslexia are prominent in Attention Deficit Disorder and children don't always outgrow these problems. They follow them into adulthood where they show up as procrastination at work, blurting out remarks that have nothing to do with anything discussed, getting numbers and letters reversed, sudden angry outbursts and tantrums,

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