Participants in the live weekly X (formerly Twitter) chat #CPChatNow enjoyed an insightful conversation Wednesday, January 17th, 2024. To dive deeper into those insights, I am chat co-host Zachary Fenell. Welcome to your weekly recap!

Interestingly enough, the spark for the dialogue January 17th occurred earlier that week on Friday, January 12th when chat regular Stephen used the hashtag in a post.

In his post Stephen asked how you overcome cerebral palsy. Veronica chimed in, saying, “I don’t like the word overcome. You have CP. It is a part of who you are.” She would go on to advise, “Realize you’d be a different person without it. Take it slow and think of something that makes you happy that you wouldn’t have if you didn’t have cerebral palsy.”

Additionally, I responded, “Like Veronica, Stephen, I don’t think of cerebral palsy as something I overcome. I see CP as something I live with.” A discussion we examined further during the chat January 17th.

Raising the subject matter, I asked the chat, “How would you describe your relationship with cerebral palsy? Are you overcoming your CP? Living with your CP? Adapting?”

My co-host Devin Axtman replied, “I would say living with. I don’t think anyone ever completely overcomes a disability.”

Agreeing with Devin I commented, “If anything, we have to more overcome the stigmas and stereotypes related to CP instead of CP itself.” My comment led to conversation on another topic.

In responding to my post about overcoming stigmas and stereotypes, Veronica noted, “It does take time to feel comfortable in your own skin.”

Devin also responded, warning against toxic positivity. For anyone unfamiliar with the term, Anxiety and Depression Association of America (ADAA) describes toxic positivity as occurring when “encouraging statements are expected to minimize or eliminate painful emotions, creating pressure to be unrealistically optimistic without considering the circumstances of the situation.”

Specifically, Devin stated “I also think toxic positivity is not the greatest. Some things suck.” I would go on to address said “suck.”

Concurring with Devin, I stated, “The phrase ‘It’s okay not to be okay’ comes to mind. You just cannot live in the suck. There needs to be a balance between being positive and recognizing what sucks about life.” Help us find that balance by answering for the week’s extend-the-conversation question, “How do you balance being positive with recognizing what sucks about life?”

Answer below! Afterwards, set a reminder to join us on X each and every Wednesday, starting at 8pm ET.

Until then, remember. Don’t blend in. Blend out!

-Zachary