How The Internet Leveled The Playing Field For The Disabled
I am a 53-year old man who has been declared officially disabled for nearly a decade now. I never really cared much for labels, but if our society deems it important for governmental reasons to put one on me, then, indeed, that’s me.
I worked in many jobs and occupations in my adult life and never really was very focused until I reached my mid-forties. But by that time I was so burned out by the hard knocks of the jobs I had taken, I didn’t have a clue if I would ever reach any of my dreams or goals. I was told I had depression. I was even treated for it. It didn’t help. My last job was in 1999 in sales. That pink slip helped put me on disability. With that disability, came the label “disabled”. I knew it would be an uphill battle and I was willing to fight it.
I started studying depression on the World wide web because I was home a lot. It did not take me long to discover a disease called “TRD” or labeled by the psychiatric community, “treatment resistant depression”. I was one of the few lucky ones who received the only treatment for it, a vagus nerve implant. You see, TRD is actually not a mental illness, in and of itself, but a faulty vagus nerve, of which I had, will mimic the signs of depression, lethargy, etc. After I received the treatment, my life took dramatic changes. One obstacle, a majori coronary just before Christmas in 2001 shook the ground from under me. But I recovered rapidly by changing my eating habits and exercising regularly.
I occasionally still hear whispers, “He’s disabled” or “He has depression, ya know.” It doesn’t bother me much. I have taken on the philosophy, “What someone else says or considers me is none of my business”, and I mean it. I’ve found that the World wide web has leveled the playing field. I say that a bit facetiously and with a bit of sarcasm, because, during my “depressed state”, I was keenly aware of the discrimination targeted my way, though those who were being discriminating weren’t aware of my awareness. I suppose they feel we do not have feelings or sensitivity. They are very incorrect.
My darkest days were when I left the corporate world never to return. I felt like a horse being put out to pasture. I felt it was truly over. I did not have a clue at the time it was only the beginning, finally, probably for the first time, a real beginning, a real chance to live.
With extra time on my hands, I learned to “nearly master” the World wide web. I started a cartoon project with no money, Londons Times Cartoons which in less than a decade became the most visited offbeat cartoon site on the Internet (and still is). It’s rankings keep growing and by the end of this month we’ll have had 9 million visitors within the past two years. That may not sound like much but for a cartoon site it is. Most cartoons on the Internet last from 3-6 months and the others are gone within a year.
I opened two cartoon gift mega-stores and six niche funny gift shops. Sales remain brisk. I have affiliates through my manufacturer 3drose, many of them on Amazon and they sell plenty as well. I create all sorts of products with my cartoons on them; greeting cards, t-shirts, jogging suits, tank tops, mugs, beer steins, coasters, baseball caps, and, you name it, we make it. All this is due to research on the World wide web and making phone calls. Oddly enough, a disabled person, and that person is me, can write a lucid, professional email, talk on the phone professionally, create a social network and blog professionally, and write articles, hopefully professionally. The old boy network, who was once so involved in keeping a stigma attached to depression and/or disability is out of the picture now. I have no excuses anymore not to succeed. I deal with people who want me to succeed, and it helps them succeed.
I am a “living room-industrialist”. I come up with a cartoon concept, I make a call, its on a product, and jobs are created.
By the way, as long as we are labeling, I just finished three years of business college on the web at a very prestigious university. I am 53 now and plan to return next year to finish and go for an MBA. I’ll do it on the net. Why waste time with naysayers who are more concerned with “labeling” me so as to put parameters on my limitations, than those who know me just as a person and helping me succeed. I’m not saying a depressed or disabled person should hide behind his or her computer all day, I spend plenty of time interacting with people, handing out business cards, going on talk shows, and doing as much as I can in the public.
This week has been a busy one. I’ve opened three new online niche stores featuring my cartoon products; Justfunnymousepads, Justfunnycoffeemugs, and Justfunnygreetingcards, not to mention two weeks ago when I created the first cartoon maternity shop mirthgirthbirth.com and of course my ten year old cartoon site that I started from ten years go in a metal warehouse in Mississippi, Londons Times Cartoons at londonstimes.us .
Labeling is a bad thing. Have you ever noticed that a person with a mental illness or physical disability is the only person labeled by his or her ailment. If a person has cancer, we do not say “He’s cancerous”, or if a person has diabetes, I’ve yet to hear, “There goes Mr. High Blood Sugar!”. But if a person has depression, 100% of the time “He/she’s depressed” or “has depression” or “mental illness”. That usually puts an end to the conversation as the stigma remains and many do not want to know much more. That is unacceptable.
It might do them good to go to some of the famous people with depression websites such as http://www.geocities.com/coverbridge2k/artsci/famous_people_depression.html , or http://www.angelfire.com/mn2/illstandbyyou/famous.html . I am always surprised to see my name on each of the pages. There are hundreds of them; simply google “famous people with depression”. My name generally appears below Abraham Lincoln and Elton John, two others labeled with this disability.
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