Disabilities..

[MehGuy]

My taste buds, whatever they are, have not diminshed the slightest.

Ate cod this evening and it tasted as it always has tasted.

A big filet, big flakes when pushed with a fork they just said, flopp.

Haha, am I making your mouth water?

I don't know what half that stuff is.. lol.

 

[Robban]

I don't know what half that stuff is.. lol.

Haha, do you only eat fish fingers?

Not that they are bad on bread,

but there is mystical white stuff inside them.

 

[Sunshinee777]

Hmmm.. no takers? I guess everyone else is built to perfection and in working order... lol.

As for me, despite most meals being bland.. some meals.. do leave me with an overload of taste. Mainly warm almost liquid type food, with sauces. Meals that can soak my tongue leave me with a very deep taste sensation. Hot chocolate sauce is a very delicious sensation for me.

Not being able to smell doesn't mean all meals are bland. The majority are, but a few can still knock one's socks off. Lol.

Although I imagine they may be better with smell.. but even then.. some meals are so tasty I can't imagine ramping up the level.

My disability is that I can’t sit and listen boring stuff more than two minutes and after that I start daydreaming. That was the reason I can’t go to school. I have been teaching myself at my home about various things which are interesting to me and im totally happy that’s possible in the internet era we are living.

 

[Robban]

My disability is that I can’t sit and listen boring stuff more than two minutes and after that I start daydreaming. That was the reason I can’t go to school. I have been teaching myself at my home about various things which are interesting to me and im totally happy that’s possible in the internet era we are living.

Huh, doubt if that is possible here.

It is important to attend state school, and learn that Volvo is a car.

 

[Sunshinee777]

Huh, doubt if that is possible here.

It is important to attend state school, and learn that Volvo is a car.

Of course I did normal 9 year school. I mean they don’t give you choice here in Fin.

 

[Robban]

Of course I did normal 9 year school. I mean they don’t give you choice here in Fin.

It was similar with my daughter, Now she drives a flashy Saab aero and works as a night security guard.

We don't all have to become doctors and lawyers,

 

[SkyWriting]

I thought it would be interesting to make a thread asking posters here if they suffer from any disabilities.. be it mental or physical. What have been your experiences? Cons and possible benefits?

As for me I was born without a sense of smell. Never fully realized it until I was in my early teens. Before that I always assumed my nose must somehow be stuffed up. Or I wasn't trying hard enough to sniff, or that smells were just really subtle and I am too stupid to pick them up. I consider anosmia to be no different than being born blind. In fact it's probably worse..

Nah.. I'm just kidding.. when it comes to disabilities anosmia is probably the bottom of the barrel. Doesn't stop some millennials or some other generation from trying to cash this in for some oppression points though.. lol. Personally I find videos like this funny. Eating food may be a more bland experience, but I also do not have to deal with being penetrated with rotten smells. Which sounds violating. So I think it all evens out in the end.. lol.

Here is one woman who decided to make a whole Youtube channel about it. She's an anosmia activist.

I guess I do worry about not being able to detect rotten food and being burned alive in a fire and whether or not I'm a walking dumpster.. but meh.. lol.

I've been around disabled people and even married one.
But for me, just medium ringing in my ears.
A lot of "Disabled adventures" with my wife though.
She didn't walk from age 9.

The only notable "benefits" were riding in the White House elevator (it's tiny), and occasionally really good music concert seating.

 

[jayem]

I thought it would be interesting to make a thread asking posters here if they suffer from any disabilities.. be it mental or physical. What have been your experiences? Cons and possible benefits?

As for me I was born without a sense of smell. Never fully realized it until I was in my early teens. Before that I always assumed my nose must somehow be stuffed up. Or I wasn't trying hard enough to sniff, or that smells were just really subtle and I am too stupid to pick them up. I consider anosmia to be no different than being born blind. In fact it's probably worse..

Nah.. I'm just kidding.. when it comes to disabilities anosmia is probably the bottom of the barrel. Doesn't stop some millennials or some other generation from trying to cash this in for some oppression points though.. lol. Personally I find videos like this funny. Eating food may be a more bland experience, but I also do not have to deal with being penetrated with rotten smells. Which sounds violating. So I think it all evens out in the end.. lol.

Here is one woman who decided to make a whole Youtube channel about it. She's an anosmia activist.

I guess I do worry about not being able to detect rotten food and being burned alive in a fire and whether or not I'm a walking dumpster.. but meh.. lol.

I can relate. For the last 5 years or so, my senses of smell (and correspondingly, taste) have been less acute. As an over 65 Boomer, it’s partly age related. But 6 years ago, I tripped while going down some carpeted stairs. The next thing I remember is waking up in the ER. Apparently, I smacked the left side of my head pretty hard. The ER doc told me I had a concussion, and the CT scan indicated a small area of hemorrhage in the left temporal lobe. Not large enough to need surgery, but I was admitted for overnight observation. I never had a headache. I had no neck or back pain, and (fortunately) I could move my arms and legs normally with full strength and sensation. I was discharged the next morning after a repeat CT showed the hemorrhage had cleared. The only thing that ever hurt was a cracked left lower 2nd molar. I also had some double vision, but only when looking down and to the right. The tooth was too far gone for a root canal and had to be extracted. The double vision cleared up on it’s own after several weeks, as I expected it would. But I gradually began to notice that I’d lost some smell and taste. Not totally, but the finer details of smells and, the tastes of food were lacking. Which makes sense. The brain region that processes smell and taste is in the temporal lobe, near where the bleeding was seen. Obviously, I lost some neurons, which won’t regenerate. I can still enjoy a good meal, but those more subtle, nuanced layers of flavor are gone forever.

BTW, I was kinda hoping that after my head injury, I’d be able to play the piano, speak French, or see the future. But all I got was a broken tooth, double vision, and weaker smell and taste.

 

[MehGuy]

A Youtube video of a woman with anosmia sharing celebrities who also suffer with this condition.

I've read about 1 in 10,000 people are born without a sense of smell.. personally I thought it was much more common. Kind of mind boggling to think about. About 1 in 5,000 cannot smell at all later in life.. due to accident.. disease and whatnot. I have also read that humans have gradually evolved to use less and less of this sense over time. We still have many genes that have to do with smell that is much more intense than we have now.. but they're just deactivated. It does seem like a sense that might eventually completely devolve. Although looking at the statistics.. maybe not quite so.

Even with humans who do have active noses.. compared to many other animals.. our sense of smell is quite poor.

 

[Bob Crowley]

After eating some of the stuff my owner puts in my bowl i can clear a room of people in an instant! Ewwwwww...

You can probably still smell last night's dinner even after the master has washed your dish.

I thought this was interesting, since we're carrying on about the sense of smell, or lack of it.

How Powerful Is a Dog's Nose?

Dogs possess a sense of smell many times more sensitive than even the most advanced man-made instrument. Powerful enough to detect substances at concentrations of one part per trillion—a single drop of liquid in 20 Olympic-size swimming pools.

 

[Bob Crowley]

Since we're supposed to be talking about disabilities, I'm hard of hearing and have been all my life.

I've been wearing a hearing aid long enough to know they're nowhere near as good as normal ears, particularly in noisy background situations. I appear to be wearing two hearing aids these days, but I've only got one. The thing in my right ear is a transmitter which picks up sounds on the right hand side and passes them across to the real hearing aid in my left ear via bluetooth. My wife would claim it sends a laser beam straight through!

The biggest frustration is socialising, followed possibly by music. I play the guitar after a fashion, and it's a challenge! I can't see myself trying to play jazz which depends on improvisation and a lot of theory, unless you've got great hearing. I wouldn't even try to learn heavily inflected languages like Chinese! I have enough trouble with English!

Hearing aids pick up background noise which can be confusing and annoying. Some of the advertisements claim their new aids overcome this problem, but I've been wearing them long enough to be cynical about marketing claims. It's a bit like the theoretical fuel consumption in car advertisements - the reality is never as good as the manufacturer's blurb.

I've no sense of direction with sound, having virtually only one ear. You need two equal ears to pick up direction. If I hear a siren somewhere, whether cop, ambulance or fire engine, I've got no idea where it's coming from until I get a visual clue - flashing lights, other cars moving out of the way, people stopping on green lights and so on.

This could be a problem in my last job when I was picking up clients from home eg. "Where are you?" "Here!" "Where's here??"

Having said that, hearing aids have improved. The first one I had was a pocket affair with a cord leading to an earpiece, and it went through 2 AA batteries in about 2 days. The new ones go through a much smaller battery in about 10 days, and give a better response. I don't think I'd benefit from a cochlear implant, although being Christian I suppose I can always hope for a miracle...

Actually the pastor who married us once said (many years ago) "I think you might get your hearing back", which is bit odd because I've never had good hearing.

I'll believe it when I hear it!

 

[IWalkAlone]

I have psychological disability. Its humbling. Its been hard but all things work good for those who love the Lord. I have grown though, and i take meds. Meds don't cure it though. I still struggle sometimes. I think of Paul's thorn in his side, it tormented him. Gods grace was enough for him so its enough for me as well. Strangely i feel empowered by it at times. When I'm weak I'm strong. Weakness can be strength. All things work good for those who love God. And being humbled by it must be good. What price would we put on humility? Humility is the key to the kingdom.

 

[Bob Crowley]

Oh yeah, I love salt. Salt isn't really something one can smell right? So I'm probably not missing out in the regard?

I can smell salt, particularly if it’s rock salt through a grinder rather than table salt from a shaker. On those rare occasions I gargle with salt water, I can both smell and taste the salt, provided I’ve put a lot in the glass.

But it’s not a strong smell. It comes out more in taste.

I grew up not far from a tannery. Rest assured, your lack of a sense of smell would have been a distinct advantage at times. After a while though my sense of smell would just give up and I couldn’t smell it anymore, even though the odour molecules were still there. Other people would comment “Jeez! The tannery’s stinking tonight!”, yet I could no longer smell it.

 

[Goonie]

Dyspraxia, a disability involving coordination, spent a good bit of time with speech and physical therapy growing up.

 

[MehGuy]

Dyspraxia, a disability involving coordination, spent a good bit of time with speech and physical therapy growing up.

Interesting. I had speech issues growing up, nothing physical. I just talked late and my ability to process grammar is quite poor. Sadly they could never come up with a diagnosis. Still have it and always will. My grammar ability is probably more akin to a 5th grader. Although I think over time it is slowly getting better.

English classes were always brutal.. I feel like I'd better understand literal rocket science more easily than how sentence structure works, lol.

 

[MehGuy]

An article from CNN about the Covid pandemic making a million (perhaps millions) of Americans permanently lose their sense of smell or at least hinder it.

All I have to say is welcome to the club.

More than a million people in the US may not have regained sense of smell months after Covid-19 infection, study estimates - CNN