Itching to Sneeze – Allergies

I suppose most people wouldn’t consider rhinitis (seasonal sneazonal, etc.) to be a disability, and I don’t know in all honesty what the SSA thinks about that, but what I can tell you is that it has a very long history of making my existence miserable starting at about the same time as my hearing issues. Back then, it was way worse than it is (for me) now, because the pharmaceutical interventions were pretty pathetic compared to those of today. Today I’m in much better shape ala my allergies, and while I probably suffer from sneezing, wheezing, and watery eyes somewhat more than the average person, it’s all pretty livable these days. I do rely on a daily OTC antihistamine that helps a lot.

The only reason I put it on this list is because I was, and I know of many people who are, given awful childhoods and teen times, and adult and old times by allergies – mine are minor compared to some, but they’ve been bad enough to interfere with my life in many ways. So here we are.

Disability? – who knows? It should be.

You’d Drink Too! – The (pink) Elephant Enters the Room

…if you had any of my wife, boss, car, house, kids, dog, parrot, city council, alarm clock – well, you get it. These and many other excuses are sometimes a bit sensible, but not required – to drink.

As I write, I have 5 years of sobriety. Sobriety is the opposite of drinking (alcohol). So, I haven’t had a drink for 5 years. A particularly cool and important thing about that is that I haven’t wanted to drink for that same amount of time.

Sometimes the word Sobriety is used in relation to other substances beside alcohol – that’s fine, because I’ve had no desire to use any of these substances for 5 years. There’s a Marijuana dispensary not 2 blocks down the road from me. It’s right next to a new coffee shop I’ve never visited either. I have no reason to visit the dispensary, and I visit a better coffee shop farther down the road. Because their coffee is better. I know their coffee is better even though I’ve never visited the shop by the dispensary because it’s impossible for that to be better. They know their stuff, my regular coffee place does.

If you’ve never had a problem with alcohol, it’s unlikely that you can understand what a really big deal my lack of interest in it today is. Within that lack of interest, however, is a deadly danger. I cannot rest on that lack of interest. That’s because I’m an alcoholic, and without a firm and constant commitment to my personal and continuous spiritual growth, that lack of interest can evaporate faster than you can say Jack Daniels.

I know, because I’ve experienced that evaporation multiple times in my life, from early adulthood to about 5 years ago. It always happened on the day I believed I was cured of my alcoholism. Finding out I was wrong (not cured) was very painful. I’m fine today with the fact that I’ll never be cured. What I can be, is sane(?) and sober today. I can do several specific things that will let me go to bed sober. I will then wake up tomorrow with untreated alcoholism.

If, tomorrow, I do those same specific things I did today, I can go to bed sober again.

Rinse and repeat. One day at a time.

Now, as I hinted earlier, the SSA – at least at my application time – considers alcoholism as a disability. I don’t know if this is because the American Psychiatric Association (APA) lists it in their “Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders” (https://archive.org/details/APA-DSM-5) under “Alcohol Use Disorder.” Essentially, it’s a chronic illness in that paradigm, and since it’s also incurable (my word), it does make some sense that SSA would classify it that way. In any case, that box got ticked on the assessment that SSA made to qualify me as disabled. I’m not going to argue with either SSA or the APA, so just like the others:

Disability? – check.

So that takes care of Paul’s list of disabilities – maybe you’re as tired of reading it as I am of writing it. I broke it into several parts because a reading time calculator I tried nailed it at almost 30 minutes of reading. Bon Appetit.