I know what you are going through. I am almost 29 years old and I've lived with SPD my whole life. Growing up, I never knew what it was. Even when I found out about SPD this last year, I kept telling myself that I was making excuses, that I really was just lazy, that I wasn't working hard enough to follow and contribute to instructions and conversations. I have only recently accepted that I have SPD and that it is the source of most of my problems growing up and still today. But I am still getting minimal support from family and friends. My mom, my sister, and one friend believe and support me; my father, brothers, and everyone else think I am just making excuses.

Of course, I shouldn't be surprised. My sister was born with mild to moderate hearing loss, and the doctors have always told us that her hearing loss is and will continue to get worse. Her latest audiogram shows that her hearing loss is now moderately-severe to profound. However, my father, brothers, and most everyone else don't believe that she is deaf, that she can't communicate with speech anymore, that she can't use the phone. And deafness is a lot more well-known and understood than SPD.