About letting other people help us when we don’t actually need it: I think that sometimes we do people a service by allowing this. It helps them feel good about themselves.

About self injury. I have only made a completely deliberate attempt at this once, when I was nine years old. I was naive enough to think that what I wanted to happen was automatically what was going to happen. Consequently, despite the adrenaline rush, it only took me a few seconds to go for it. Such things do in fact deserve a huge amount of consideration. There is no going back.

Thank you once again, Tom, for stimulating a lot of thought.

Thank you for sharing the interactions you experienced. I find those moments the best, as they are as close to how we can truly feel as a person with a disability, as the grocery clerk does not know you are pretending.

Right, you can’t pretend LBE, but it is good you have found a simulation that gives you at least a little relief.

What a shame that missing a hand could be seen as a “shocking disability” especially if the person is interactive and productive.

RE: pretending and double life. Yeah, it’s hard. And tomorrow will mark only 2 weeks for me.I guess it doesn’t ever get easier.Two days ago I realized how careful I need to be pretending around my home, but today, the BIID took over and I went out in broad daylight.

It will be bad if I’m found out, but that was the lesser of two evils today when I needed to use my chair.

I look forward to more from you Tom:)