{"id":21,"date":"2017-10-23T10:18:13","date_gmt":"2017-10-23T17:18:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/nogagoldman\/?p=21"},"modified":"2017-10-23T10:18:13","modified_gmt":"2017-10-23T17:18:13","slug":"invisible-disabilities","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/nogagoldman\/2017\/10\/23\/invisible-disabilities\/","title":{"rendered":"Invisible Disabilities"},"content":{"rendered":"

People can have many different kinds of disabilities, and they can range from being insignificant in their lives to having a very large impact on who they are and who they will or can become. According to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary<\/a>, a disability is a \u201cphysical, mental, cognitive, or developmental condition that impairs, interferes with, or limits a person’s ability to engage in certain tasks\u201d. Two popular labels of disabilities are visible disabilities and invisible disabilities<\/a>. Visible disabilities are disabilities that people are aware of by looking at the disabled person, while invisible disabilities are \u201cinvisible to the onlooker\u201d and cannot be noticed easily (<\/span>\u201cHow Do You Define Invisible Disability?\u201d<\/span>). Some examples<\/a> of invisible disabilities are different kinds of mental illnesses, such as eating disorders and ADHD, chronic pain conditions, such as fibromyalgia, and chronic fatigue and dizziness. Sometimes, being deaf or blind can also be invisible disabilities, although this usually depends on if they have guide dogs, canes, hearing aids, and sign ASL publicly. <\/span><\/p>\n

Another example of an invisible disability is depression<\/a>. Depression is a mental illness that many people are embarrassed about, and do not show they are depressed in any way, allowing it to be an invisible disability. Some symptoms of depression include \u201cfeelings of sadness, tearfulness, emptiness or hopelessness\u201d, having \u201cangry outbursts\u201d, being anxious, and having unexplainable physical issues like headaches and muscle pain (<\/span>\u201cDepression (Major Depressive Disorder)\u201d<\/span>). Janelia Mould, a self-taught photographer originally from South Africa, photographed a series called \u201cA Girl Called Melancholy \u2013 A Story Of Depression<\/a>\u201d, showing what she, and other people with depression, constantly feel through their journey (Davidson). In Mould\u2019s photographs in this series, the woman wearing the dress has no head, and therefore no face, and usually lacks a limb. Mould states in a blog post<\/a> that she decided to publish these photographs this way to make sure that her audience, mostly those that have also dealt with depression, can identify with the woman. <\/span><\/p>\n

Mari Andrew, an author and illustrator who is based in New York, publishes many of her small illustrations on her Instagram account, bymariandrew<\/a>. <\/i>Andrew bases most of her illustrations on her own life, and the experiences she has had to go through. In her post on September 17, 2017, she depicts, through an illustration<\/a>, what she feels like when she is depressed. Many of Andrew\u2019s followers find that her small illustrations, usually with a couple words or sentences, are very easy to relate to.<\/span><\/p>\n

Both Mould and Andrew are sharing these artworks that they have created in order to spread awareness about depression, which is a very serious mental illness, and can often be dangerous because it is an invisible disability. Mould states in her blog post<\/a> that the \u201cseries\u2019 goal is to bring a voice to those who suffer from [depression]\u201d and to shine light onto the mental illness. It is important to create awareness about disabilities, and especially invisible disabilities, so that people who identify with them do not feel alone.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Work Cited:<\/p>\n

Andrew, Mari. bymariandrew. <\/i>Instagram, 17 Sept. 2017, https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/p\/BZJDgqAAfi3\/?taken-by=bymariandrew<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

Davidson, Jordan. \u201cJanelia Mould’s Photo Series Captures What Depression Feels Like\u201d, The Mighty, <\/i>17 Mar. 2017, https:\/\/themighty.com\/2017\/03\/janelia-mould-depression-photo-series-girl-called-melancholy\/<\/span><\/a>. Accessed 22 Oct. 2017.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cDepression (Major Depressive Disorder)\u201d, Mayo Clinic<\/i>, https:\/\/www.mayoclinic.org\/diseases-conditions\/depression\/symptoms-causes\/syc-20356007<\/span><\/a>. Accessed 22 Oct. 2017.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cDisability.\u201d Merriam-Webster Dictionary<\/i>, merriam-webster.com<\/span><\/a>, <\/i>https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/disability<\/span><\/a>. Accessed 22 Oct. 2017.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cHow Do You Define Invisible Disability?\u201d Invisible Disabilities Association, <\/i>https:\/\/invisibledisabilities.org\/what-is-an-invisible-disability\/<\/span><\/a>. Accessed 22 Oct. 2017.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cInvisible Disabilities: List & Information\u201d Disability World, <\/i>28 Oct. 2015, https:\/\/www.umass.edu\/studentlife\/sites\/default\/files\/documents\/pdf\/Invisible%20Disabilities%20List%20%26%20Information.pdf<\/span><\/a>. Accessed 22 Oct. 2017.<\/span><\/p>\n

Mould-Cheeky Ingelosi, Janelia. \u201cMy Conceptual Self-Portraits Tell The Story Of Depression\u201d, Bored Panda, <\/i>Mar. 2017, https:\/\/www.boredpanda.com\/a-girl-called-melancholy-the-story-of-depression-conceptual-self-portraits\/<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

Stewart, Jessica. \u201cInterview: Photographer Explores Own Depression with Surreal Self-Portraits\u201d, The Modern Met<\/i>, 10 Mar. 2017, http:\/\/mymodernmet.com\/janelia-mould-conceptual-photography-depression\/<\/span><\/a>. Accessed 22 Oct. 2017.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

People can have many different kinds of disabilities, and they can range from being insignificant in their lives to having a very large impact on who they are and who they will or can become. According to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, a disability is a \u201cphysical, mental, cognitive, or developmental condition that impairs, interferes with, or […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":54426,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/nogagoldman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/nogagoldman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/nogagoldman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/nogagoldman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/54426"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/nogagoldman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/nogagoldman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/nogagoldman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21\/revisions\/22"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/nogagoldman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/nogagoldman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/nogagoldman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}