Welcome to a place for creators. I'm a disabled filmmaker and commercially qualified drone pilot working on projects with the BBC and other corporate productions, documenting my journey on how I use the latest technologies to create content. For media / press or sponsorship enquiries, please email studio@chrislynchfilm.com For TV / Broadcast enquiries, please contact Shelley Lowry Management. shelleylowry.com
So many of us are getting secondary health conditions (like strokes & heart attacks) or taking our lives because our pain isn’t being adequately treated anymore. As if fighting our illnesses isn’t enough we have to fight to stay alive only sleeping every 3rd day & eating every 5th day. I got adequate pain relief recently on hospice but only for 3 months & was able to eat & sleep every day- they dropped me. I know - mark my words I am gonna die very soon. 😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢
I have Osteogenesis Imperfecta too! I am recovering from surgery to replace the hardware in my badly broken femur as I watch this. My OI is fairly mild and I walked normally until I was 38. Then I was in an accident that broke my other hip and femur and I had to use a walker for a long time. I am a professional folksinger and I continued to sing through all of my cascade of injuries that occurred as I got older. Now at 63 I am ( I hope) temporarily in a wheelchair. I am continuing my singing. I found this documentary very interesting and emotionally touching. I wish I had a wheelchair that allowed me to be on the beach! By the way, I have had long periods of great happiness in my life. But the deaths of my brother, my husband, and my best friend ( last year) were the worst crisises I have been through. When I break something, I just heal and pull myself up physically and emotionally again. Death is a lot harder to deal with.
"Happiness as a metric to guide policy"- the best conclusion presented. But folks seek personal thrills, immediate gratification. Any goal for common good is rejected by many. Thanks for your honest, valuable work here! We must all build a caring community around us. Great job Chris! 🌞
Someone mentioned or asked if just because we’re miserable with our disabilities should they be miserable too. Of course. If you have the kinds of things that go into making happiness such as family or friends and or a job which most of the happier people among the disability groups had jobs and and or families. If you’re happy with what you’ve got, that’s great. I was just pointing out the disparity between say a transgender person saying they’re uncomfortable with their body, versus, a multiple disabled person saying the same thing. We’re both uncomfortable with our bodies. Because my body cannot see and cannot walk or use its hands very well, I cannot go out independently or try to build a family that I lost. It’s no secret that if you lose your health, it doesn’t matter how old you are you feel like you’re 100 years old. I’m happy the fact that most of my friends are mostly disabled and so we understand each other. We can lift each other up as a community of faith. I’m not saying we should be miserable all the time. I’m just saying about my disability, I’m just for it. I am blind dysphoric and wheelchair dysphoric. There’s nothing science can do to fix that and I understand that. My horizons have certainly shrunk because of my disabilities and because of my lack of support and lack of money. If I were healthy and in my 30s, of course I’d be trying to get a job or things like that. Anyway, I’m just saying That there’s a disparity and people with disabilities it seems like we’re supposed to accept our situation no matter what and be positive about it while a trans person can say that they’re in the wrong body and their traumatize by transphobia. If I said I was traumatized by evil ism, people would tell me to keep my chin up.
the 'hedonic adaptation' theory suggests our happiness levels return to a baseline despite major life events. for instance, long term happiness of a lottery winner and an accident victim may be similar. initial joy or despair from such events can cause happiness fluctuations, but people typically adapt to their new circumstances, returning to previous contentment levels. this underscores human resilience and the importance of finding happiness in daily experiences.
It really resonates and frustrates me too when people say they would rather die than live using a wheelchair. My father was actually one of those people. I do not need to always use mine now so I don’t hear or receive this type of treatment as much now. But it is a common theme in the rhetoric I see people utilize. My life is pretty good! It is peoples ableism and disableism that really challenges me emotionally and mentally. Not to say that I don’t experience certain challenges or difficulties due to disability, it’s just that I am able to adapt in most situations to do the same things other people do in life. I feel for you and Jake about the difficulty of navigating issues of our own mortality. I do not have the same type of connective tissue disorder but, I experienced something similar to basilar invagination. However, because my bones are not fragile I was candidate for occipito-cervical fusion. I also found the use of cervical collar helped me a lot, but it also brought a lot of unwanted attention. My dad was taken off life support because he had no brain stem function. Learning that internal decapitation and brain stem compression was a possible outcome and diagnosis hit me really hard. It was scary knowing the next time I fall or pass out may be my last moments in life. I still have myelopathy and/or cervical medullary syndrome but that doesn’t keep me from living an independent and fulfilling life! Unlike my father I feel like my life is valuable regardless of what physical, and environmental barriers life throws at me.
Not to put down these people's struggles, but given what they said, sometimes mental/emotional and chronic pain conditions might be harder to bear. These are ironically invisible, but strike at the heart (or identity) of who a person is and really sap one's strength. Dealing with constant depression, the struggle to maintain emotional regulation and find ways to deal with volume-turned-up sensations with autism, and/or the emptiness and confusion that come with issues like alexithymia are NOT easy...maybe because the problems come from within and undercut confidence, sense of identity, memory, executive functioning, and emotional strength.
Hi Chris! Another Lynch here! I too am disabled but not yet in a wheelchair. Those hospital pulleys bring back a few memories! Had hip problems aged 12 in 1970. That sticky plaster was a nightmare coming off! And the itching! Right hip slipped out of socket. It was pinned and screwed. But nothing at all wrong with left hip. Until some junior house registrar was let loose on me when I was 14! They hadnt heard of 'if it ain't broke dont mend it! Well they totally destroyed the cartilage in my hip resulting in osteoarthritis and severely restricted movement. Later, I needed a total hip replacement at age 35 but it didnt really improve matters. But I've still got it in! Yay! Obviously I had no legal redress because back then people doffed their caps at the professions and thought they knew what they were doing. Many teenage years spent in hospital and not with friends! And lots of life's crap in between including a nasty road accudent which further disabled me! But I'm still here! And upright (i think through fear more than anything). Well I'm 66 this year and will keep going for as long as I can, making my crafts. I remember hearing about the man who painted with his left foot and saw the film many years ago. More recently, I saw pictures painted by people who used their mouths! It is extraordinary what people can do with limitations upon the body. Kind regards and Blessings to all from Boadicea! 🙋🙏🏴🇮🇪🙏👌
The disgust shown towards disability is shocking to me sometimes but to me it just means we need to put it even further into the public eye to show that it's not bad it's not strange it's life it is a normal everyday life just like anyone else. If it's shown enough it will become the norm to people and they will not give disability a second glance.
Just as a side note I have never understood the need for a child to be biologically yours. There are millions of children who need loving homes. I personally do not want children but I know that if that ever changed I would adopt. That's not because I don't want to pass on my disability. That's just because I know that there is someone out there who would love to be part of my home. May even go as far to say I would be happier to adopt a child with a disability because I can relate and help them navigate. where with an able-bodied child I don't think I would have that same connection because I don't have the same perspective and experiences.
I think he focuses on the things he cant have and that is the issue for me as a disabled person. I will admit I have depression episodes but this goes too far. Its body dysmorphia regardless if its caused by the disability. Needs better coping skills. Im not pushing toxic positivity but anyone would be depressed focusing on the negativity all the time. Also if you cant love yourself you shouldn't look for someone to do it for you. I have been where he is as I have to rely on wheelchair more and more but seeing what my life is like without aides gave me great perspective. Seeing the wheelchair as my independence rather then my prison. I think too maybe a better support system would be useful but you have to accept asking for help to build a support system.
I don’t think anyone should be bullied into celebrating their disability. If you have any emotional problems, such as depression, or a brain, chemical problem, such as bipolar or whatever, that is going to change how you enjoy anything. But for instance, it seems to me that people who are transgender Are told it’s OK for you to change your body to fit the gender you feel you are. But when it comes to me as a blind woman, who’s been blind since birth and I’m also in a wheelchair and I have borderline personality and I don’t have family connections, people die people move. The person who says I would have boy parts, but I feel like a girl is celebrated for that what they feel like but a disabled person is told no you have to accept and celebrate things that hold you down, keep doors closed, etc.“ Hell, no. I am a blind person who has to love the theater. The theatre is a visual sport as much as anything else. My blindness has never let me in the theater. I mean as a performer. It has closed many doors. I was good enough to be able to catch a small role here and there and I loved it. Acting was something I really loved doing. But now I’m also in a wheelchair and I can no longer use my hands. Thanks to a whole bunch of damn diseases. And I don’t understand why anybody thinks changing the words or the narrative will do anything. It’s not words we need to change it’s attitudes. Like I said, if Timothy wants to become Michelle, that person is celebrated. If I tell you 32:45 32:46 32:47 32:47 32:48 look, my temperament, and my blindness, don’t even mix, and I’ve been blind since birth, why am I told to accept and celebrate blindness? As for the diseases that eventually put me in a chair and ruined my hands, all of those things happen to me and my health deteriorated and my family deteriorated. Like I said, now I am 58 and, I have complete blindness from birth, I’m in a wheelchair, and my hands are deformed now, and I have BPD. Why am I expected to celebrate all that, when that’s not how I feel? So I would like to hear more about ability, affirming care. I eat, a cited soul, gets a cited body, not a blind one. A mobile person who is mobile in their thoughts Hands and arms and legs and spinal structures that work. Why tell group i.e. the transgender but it’s OK for you to change your body to fit your mind. Then tell us people with disabilities to accept and celebrate all the things that keep us down and keep us unemployed, or under employed, all the things that close doors as soon as we acquire these disabilities, even if it’s from birth. it seems a little hypocritical at least to me. So if you haven’t found happiness in your disability, I’m totally with you 32:38 on that. 32:15
The salary here in Thailand is $280 every month. So I unfortunately know that I never will be able to have on. But even of that I think this is a real wheelchair. And I'm happy for the people who can afford it.
I think you are all awesome. I have a not great spine, but I don't have the same challenges you all face. I still am on the antidepressants. Thanks for being so candid.
I use a power wheelchair when I need to get around very far, as I have Classical-like Ehlers-Danlos syndrome and Ankylosing spondylitis, it has made a mess of my spine and caused permanent nerve damage...I was not always in a wheelchair, I used to be very able bodied and it is real intense grief I feel about that loss, BUT...I am still happy in my life, I have friends, family, I work a job, my brain works just fine and there are so many things in the world that are beautiful and worth experiencing still, even with the chronic pain and sickness that I am constantly having to deal with. Life is worth living...half the able bodied people I see are less happy than me and really...if they "lived like me" they might be happier.
This is super honest. I have OI. I need support for 100% of my care. I’ve never been unhappy or depressed. The differences between people is always so amazing. Because on paper I should be feeling all the things you described in this doc and yet I don’t and never have. I am 40 years old and I’m the happiest I’ve ever been. But I grew up accepting and loving my disabled body. I never wished to be ablebodied. I think that’s a sick mindset to have because it puts of a barrier up between you and your ability to love yourself. My upbringing was also different in that my Mom doesn’t believe in modifying the bodies of babies/children who can not make the decision for themselves. So I’m a unicorn in our OI community. I’ve never had a single surgery. I still have my appendix and tonsils.😂 She just never saw the point of rodding when I was never going to walk anyway. I just wore leg braces day and half the night for a decade. I tell people I have straight legs even though I’m bow legged af. But my legs are not twisted like a pretzel like some of us. She also raised me to have so much self-confidence that it borders on arrogance today. No one has ever been able to say anything negative about my disability and have me believe it. It’s impossible. I don’t want children because TBH I don’t like them. Also, I would never pass on OI to anyone. I don’t hate OI. I’m happy to be here, but I won’t lie and say my life isn’t harder because of OI. I believe being a good parent means being a good parent to children who don’t even exist yet. I’m not going to knowing give them this. You’re correct about this being an unpopular opinion in our community. I hope you find peace, love, acceptance, and happiness within yourself. 🩷 from Kansas, USA!
What an amazing film. I hope you keep making these wonderful films and changing the world one film at a time and I bet you find beautiful love and happiness. ❤
Happiness is fleeting and depends on what’s ’happening’. True joy can only be found in the Lord Jesus. It’s not a joy that the world can give you, so the world cannot take it away.
I think it's probably different for people that are born with issues versus those who acquire them over time. Like, I think it would be a whole lot easier to be born blind than have been born sighted and lose it. I was born healthy and it's impossible to not compare between the two. To not grieve the things that I've lost as a result. Having said that, I like camping. It's the one place that I can go away from home because being around people, I catch everything. Obviously, hammering in tent pegs is a nightmare but I found some that I can screw into the ground. The manual labor part is now on the impact driver as opposed to my lungs. It would be easy to to just lay down and die but who really wants that? Edited to add: That Brian fella is quite a character. He seems like genuinely good people and I'm sure his family has enjoyed having him a part of their lives. I bet he'd be fun just to hang out with. Edited one more time to add: For people who are disabled and craving intimacy, there's something called "sexual surrogacy" and I'm not super sure what it all entails, I think it just depends on your needs and abilities but that might be worth looking into.
I am 65. I have Cerebral Palsy and Autism. I graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in Electronics Engineering Technology. I worked on and off in industry from 1978 to 2001. Experienced Ageism and Ableism between 2001 to 2006. Retired on disability at age 48. I am a disability civil rights activist.
If someone said "If I was disabled I'd kill myself" I would either think or have guts to tell that person "Go ahead! Me, I'm more than happy with my Life. It challenges not only me but others as well. I have my ups and downs but the universe sends me more ups, a lot more ups than downs! I'm 68.
Chris can you please answer my curiosity. I am having the same disease and to some extent the same physical features, but I can walk with a walking aid or stick. Why can't you?
This is the only documentary film that I enjoyed the most. Two reasons for this. One obviously was the quality of the film, its content, and secondly Chris is like me in terms of the disease. We both have the same I think. I even think our type are the same in oI. I feel we both have type-4. Any way I would love to connect with chris some day.
I know very strong able bodied people that are also very smart and well off financially. Not rolling in money rich. But well off. And some of them are the most miserable, depressed, self pitying people I've ever known. I find that often when people look at me and look at my life, they focus entirely on everything I can't do. I focus on the things I can do. I became disabled in my forties from a stroke. I think I came out pretty good considering how debilitating a stroke can be. Each stroke is different, and survivors range from full recovery to bedridden for life and everything in between. I've actually done well. I live independently. Walk with a cane. Have residual effects on my vision and balance among other things. It affects my life every day. But I walk with a cane, drive with limitations and live independently. What more could I ask for. I'll admit, I do miss the things I used to take for granted. I can only drive very locally, in daylight and decent weather. So can't go to all the fun places I used to go. And would not be able to enjoy those places like I did before anyway because I don't last through the day and can't be as active as I used to be. But I still think I've done well. Most importantly, I have God. I think I'm happier than a lot of people that are "better off" physically and financially.
Happy is being able to afford necessities which actually means your rich and if you can do anything on your own than you are struggling but if you can’t do anything than that is disabled, you are just a person who is perceptive to ingenuity helping your limits not be limiting, if you drink from the river like a cow instead of from your hand than you will be left there like that with your face in the water but if you drink from your hand you will be apart of great armies, I am trying to say that this guy will figure it out before you bend down and grab a handful, how is that disabled?
