To Walk or Not to Walk?

Should we accept what life dealt us or work to fix it? How do we cope with our circumstances?

Arun Lakra explores this question with two disabled characters through his play, Sequence. Dr. Guzman, a professor and researcher, is inflicted by Retinitis Pigmentosa (PR), which is an inherited disease that causes progressive vision loss to complete blindness. Mr. Adamson is born with cerebral palsy and has become wheelchair bound by being struck by a drunk driver.The playwright places the characters in Dr. Guzman's office where Dr. Guzman begins to question her student on the reason why he cannot walk. Almost immediately, the audience begin to see how differently they choose to deal with their disability.

Mr. Adamson (Jesse LaVercombe) and Dr. Guzman (Nancy Palk), Sequence 2017 at Tarragon Theatre

Mr. Adamson believes God has decided his fate for him, and shows acceptance of his inability to walk. However, he also admits he wishes to walk again, and sometimes think back to that moment for slight change in events may have changed the result of getting run over at the cross walk. A part of him is certain that he will walk again if and when God says so. This is not so far from the processes individuals go through after a sudden traumatic event. Often the stages to acceptance occur similar to the stages of grieve.

Those who suffer from a sudden traumatic event usually experience an increase in stress and difficulties with emotion regulation, memory and the regulation of stress itself. Immediately afterwards, the affected person will experience intense, heightened emotions which they can have a hard time understanding and processing, let alone keeping under control. They can also experience problems with memory from difficulty recalling the event properly to disturbing daily reminders or nightmares during sleep. Like grieving, stages include: denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance. This is common as it is a sudden loss in one aspect of their lives that they may not fully regain back, if at all. Mr. Adamson displays these characteristics throughout the play.

In addition to using one's usual stress coping mechanisms, coping strategies recommended would be to surround oneself with as much moral support as possible immediately after the event and process what happened in as much a healthy way as possible. In essence, this would include positive coping such as not dwelling or ruminating on the event, not blaming one self for whatever occurred, not wondering what if or why me, and trying to find the positive or a silver lining even when it feels like there is none. In fact, practicing gratitude in itself and positively relating to the event or perceiving it as making one stronger and less vulnerable rather than the opposite, has been shown to significantly help with trauma and related anxiety and depression. Counselling with professional counselors or therapists can also be a great resource to tap into if after a few weeks.

An interesting comparison Dr. Guzman brings up is that, unlike her students sudden infliction of unfortunate circumstances, she has forced to watched to witness the degradation of her vision as it "creeps in from the corner." She took it upon herself to take action against her timely blindness and threw herself into work to find a cure.

According to Canadian Stem Cell Foundation, 1 in 3500 Canadians suffer from RP, one of the leading cause of blindness. Vision loss begins in affected individuals usually in early adulthood. A focus group studied the coping mechanisms of young adults suffering from RP and found the majority exhibit a balance between the resistance to retain their sights and independence, and a downplay of the disease to reassure themselves it could have been worse. A couple of cases refused to stop driving when they should have just out of fear of becoming dependent. While, most of the coping strategies from above does apply to all , often those with slow progression disease may constantly reevaluate their feelings, as they are still in the process of getting worse. Fear often play a huge role when becoming uncertain for the future. Even if they have more time to prepare for future, Perhaps, it also causes longer stages of denial.

The contrast in psychology is interesting. Someone suffering from a chronic disease would process their disability differently from someone who became disabled so suddenly. This also influences the characters personalities. Dr. Guzman is very fierce and determined to get her research completed in time. She refuses to lose her ability, such as the people in the focus groups. While Mr. Adamson has come a long way to accept his condition to the point of it being apart of his identity.

Dr. Guzman challenged Mr. Adamson strong faith in God's decision when she gave him an option to walk. When forced to answer, he states he would like to walk again. This begs the question of how quick are we to be accepting of our shortcomings, and how quick are we to leave it when opportunity arise.

#disability #Sequence #ArunLakra #perspective #CopingStategy