Halloween has always been a pretty fun holiday at my house. From watching The Nightmare Before Christmas and Hocus Pocus, to baking cookies with my mom, Halloween is always the best.
But, what happens when you have a condition like cerebral palsy? How does that affect a very physical holiday like Halloween?
The positive side of Halloween with cerebral palsy
The truth is, having cerebral palsy didn’t affect the way I would go about celebrating Halloween as a child. My mom always made it a point to make sure I felt just like any normal person my age. The only difference about my Halloween experience was that my mom would incorporate my wheelchair or my cast if I’d had surgery around Halloween with my costume.
For example, when I was 7 years old, I was in a body cast for my hip surgery. Iit reached up to my waist. So, my mom turned me into a dead zombie killer while in my rental wheelchair.
I thought it was the coolest costume ever, but I wondered if other kids thought it was just as cool. Thankfully, my mom never allowed me to feel any different or miss out on holidays like Halloween.
The negative side of having cerebral palsy on Halloween
My cerebral palsy doesn’t do well with scary things such as jump scares, spooky music or even loud noises. It is a neurological condition that affects the brain and movement control. So, my cerebral palsy has a jumping party all on its own.
Every time I hear loud noises I jump and people around don’t understand why I have a spastic attack as I like to call it when Cerebral palsy has a party.
Each time I jump from scary music it hurts my body. Even for a few days after I’m a little more anxious, and my body gets stiffer and my mind began to spin. Everything just becomes harder for me, but I refuse to let that stop me from living a normal life.
Although I hope there comes a day where I can enjoy Halloween without that worry on my mind ,I will continue to enjoy Halloween as much as I can!.
So what are some ways we could be more mindful to make Halloween better for people with conditions like mine?
- Be cautious with noises and things that jump out at people – people with cerebral palsy don’t do well with noises and get easily scared with things that jump out at us, which causes our bodies to hurt. Please be mindful of that.
- Please make room for people with Cerebral palsy to walk up or wheel up to the pathways of your door. I can’t tell you how many Halloweens I had to have my cousins walk up pathways for me cause I couldn’t get my wheelchair through, which would make me remember that I have a condition that makes me different.
- Treat us the same way you would treat other trick or treaters – I can remember many Halloweens people would see the wheelchair and feel bad. They’d let me get extra candy just because of my C.P. Mind you, it’s a nice gesture, but I don’t want to be seen as a special person just because I have a condition. I want to be treated the same .
Photo by Colton Sturgeon on Unsplash
