Four words that I find myself repeating daily – convincing myself:
“It will be ok”
The prospect of not having my close supports around me terrifies me.
“Who will look after me when my parents aren’t around?” or “where will I go when I need respite from my own life?”
Right now retreating to my parents, often on weekends, is heaven. There’s no need to plan my supports, I have a cuppa tea brought to me, I eat amazing food cooked and there’s no effort flicking a light switch on! At times I go away with my parents for a change of scenery which is just bliss. But I know these opportunities will cease. I revel in these escapes and always return refuelled and rested. I know to sustain my lifestyle I need to incorporate these breaks into my future.
I know then things will be ok.
Right now, I don’t want to invest more time and energy into exploring future support options, but I know having something in place is reassuring to both me and my current supports.
It also becomes difficult to look into these alternate support options without insinuating that my current supports care isn’t sufficient!
My supports all echo the same sentiment when I open the conversation: “You will definitely be looked after Em!”, “No need to worry!”
I’m 100% certain that my supports genuinely have my back.
However, I know deep down that they have their own lives and I don’t want to put them in a predicament. When it comes to a time when me or my supports become more vulnerable, I don’t want to need to look into other options when it’s too late.
So I want to do “worry work” now to ensure that everyone will be ok in the future. I’m choosing to explore my options now when I have the ability to!
Like life insurance, I can research it now! In Australia, roughly 4 million people are living with a disability. It’s terrifying to think that only 500,000 are supported by the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS). Plus, over 4.2 million people are aged over 65, with approximately 2 million of those requiring extra assistance. This means that there are millions of people who also need this reassurance.
It can be daunting to think about the “worry work” I need to do sometimes, but the alternative is much more unnerving.
Consider what work you can do now to lessen the effort for yourself or another?