Most people understand that if you have a disability, it might prevent you from doing certain kinds of work. It may limit what you can do in your leisure time as well. You might have a disability the medical professionals noticed at birth. However, you may also have one that you develop over time.

Understanding the best path forward after a disability diagnosis normally requires a consultation with a medical team or doctor whom you trust. You will need to talk with them about what your life will look like from this point forward.

In this article, we will talk about some disabilities that you can develop gradually over time. Each of them will impact your day-to-day existence, but some will do so more than others.

Cognitive Decline

You may experience cognitive decline as time passes. While you might point to several reasons why this happens, sometimes, it simply occurs because of old age.

If you’re experiencing cognitive decline, it could mean you’re starting to forget small, relatively unimportant things. For instance, maybe you walk into a room and can’t remember what you needed in there or your original purpose.

That’s annoying, but it can get a lot worse from there in certain situations. You might reach a scenario where you have full-blown dementia.

If you get to that point, you might not know your own name some of the time. You may not know the individuals with whom you live.

If you leave the house, maybe you can’t find your way back. You can lose yourself in a grocery store or find yourself wandering down the freeway.

If you have severe cognitive decline, that could mean you need to live with family members who can help care for you. If that’s not possible, you might need to stay in an assisted living facility.

Vision Loss

You can lose your vision as you get older. This happens to many individuals as well. In many cases, you can point to AMD, or age-related macular degeneration.

Cataracts can also cause vision loss. Glaucoma can do it as well. Drooping eyelids and retinal detachment can sometimes cause you to not have very good vision anymore.

Much like cognitive decline, if you’re losing your vision, you would hope that you can live with family members who can help you. You can still live on your own if you’ve lost some of your vision, or even all of it, but you will need to make some significant adjustments to your life.

Generalized Anxiety

You can also develop anxiety as time passes. You might feel anxious about one particular thing. However, if you start to have worried feelings about the world in general, that’s generalized anxiety.

If someone develops generalized anxiety, they might become too fearful to leave their house. That’s why some people who develop this condition but still need to work for a living have jobs where they work from home.

They might have services deliver their food if they can’t even bring themselves to go to the grocery store. If they try to go outside and interact with the world, they might have a panic attack.

Such individuals can often get help with their condition by seeing a therapist. They might do that through telehealth appointments if they feel like they can no longer leave the house anymore. There’s no denying, though, that generalized anxiety can severely impact your life if it becomes very serious.

Clinical Depression

You might also develop clinical depression over a period of months or years. Clinical depression can have some genetic reasons behind it, but you may also get to this point because of how your life turns out.

For instance, if you have a spouse who dies or you go through a messy divorce, you might have trouble caring for yourself in the most basic of ways. You may have a hard time working, feeding yourself, bathing, keeping the house clean, etc.

If you get to this point, then you may need to seek therapy. Your therapist might prescribe you some medication or a combination of medications that they feel might help you.

Arthritis

You can develop arthritis over time as well. It often happens as you age. If it gets too bad, you might have chronic pain from it.

Your joints will feel sore and stiff. Sometimes, it’s excruciating. You will need to talk to a doctor to figure out the best way to combat the issue.

John Mali Director of Media Relations

Director of Media Relations at AboutBoulder.com

john@aboutboulder.com