But I am just that - a person with problems. Not a set of problems with a person attached. I think the distinction is important. Also, people with IDs are constantly surrounded by people who are trivializing and minimizing what's wrong with you, and denying how disabled you are. This means that to be treated in an appropriate manner, you have to fight to be seen as disabled.
Most disabled people fight to prove that they can do stuff.
As people with IDs, we more usually have to fight to prove we can't do stuff. It's easy for that sort of attitude to get inside your head, and then you really believe that you can't do anything useful. I try to regularly remind myself that I'm still me under these problems, as I wrote in this article . There is more to me than my own problems. Unfortunately, the sicker I get the harder this all gets, but I still do my best to try.