I bet the many Ataxias we're now aware of,have been around for centuries and people who displayed the 'Drunken' symptoms were shamed or branded as retards..I know I thought that..Thank-you Google and all Medical Academics for providing such amazing,accurate,caring Internet access for people like us. When I first noticed this on-set 8 years ago,I was scared $^&Tless..
I'm now feel I belong and have a mission now to help assist others like myself and provide the Doctors with
accurate information as my condition CHANGES!!!
I love all the new 'Discussions' appearing each day.We have a voice at last and the World is listening..
You hit the nail right on the head, I remember being stopped by the police and taken to the station and breathalysed because someone so me stagger and had heard me slur my words in the supermarket. I was also called into the office at work and asked if I had been drinking, when I was first diagnosed my family thought I was just looking for sympathy thank god they understand now. What you say is very true people don't understand what we feel there are 28 different types of ataxia from mild to very severe
Same here Ozzy.Good for you making the point that some Ataxias do not cause Cognitive Decline.I was intelligent before Ataxia struck 7 years ago and still am.Most of us are.It's very frustrating when people talk to you as if you are mentally challenged .I have to speak slowly and sometimes some can't understand.I have a physical illness not mental and I thinnk Joe Public is ignorant and uneducated in that field.Well done for creating awareness..I think that is what is needed now.
There was a time in the 70s when Parkinsons was little known and look at it today.Most people know about it as many celebrities have it.We need a very well known celebrity to have Ataxia,although I wouldn't wish this on anybody.
You are so right. I have been sending in comments to the Dr. Oz show about ataxia but have never heard back. If he did a show on ataxia it would help get the name and condition out there to people who have never heard about it. I will keep sending in comments to do a segment on ataxia. Some day we might get lucky.
Dear Ozzy, Glad you find this site so helpful! I do also, as we're all in the same boat (to different degrees) with ataxia! Awareness is getting out there, albeit slowly! When I was diagnosed twelve years ago, I had never heard of ataxia! Now we are all voices for ataxia....;o)
Well said. I remember my father's decline and we couldn't get an answer from the Drs. We only knew that it wasn't alzhiemers. I feel that I now have a better idea. (Also my grandmother. My mother explained it as "she is just simple.") Now I have knowledge and an understanding community. I aloso know that I can fight this thing even though the Drs. can't give a known treatment. Later, my friend. -----Silky
