thank you Dara Shawn and Steve and all the others out there who have faith in me and for making my dreams of starting this forum come true! I am honered to be a moderator for this forum and the 9/11 forum!!! I am excited an absolitely THRILLED to be able to offer what I can! Wow this is such an honer I am having a hard time finding a place to begin! I hope this forum helps those in needwith disabilities I hope people all over find this a  safe and friendly enviorment I will do all in my power to make that happen! This forum is to educate to learn to support to listen and to offer encouragement!  Let this be a place of inspiration and hope! Any poems are always welcome as well as comments and personal stories! I hope you all enjoy this forum and I will be posted alittle about myself and my own battle with living with a disabilty one of the main reasons behind starting this forum! My slogon for this forum as well as my philosphy is to hel we must help promot healing!
Thank you all again from the bottom of my heart!
                                                Much Love,
                                                   Chrissy

You are right Chrissy! We must promote healing, and an acceptance of ALL people, regardless of disability! Let's remember we are all PEOPLE first! When we talk about a disorder, say autism, we refer to those afflicted with autism like this: a child with autisn, or an adult with autism, as opposed to saying: an autistic child, or an autistic adult.
Can you hear the difference? We must acknowledge that we are all people FIRST, we are all people befor anyhting else. We are defined by our humanity, not our disordr. I do hope this makes sence to others. I work in the field of special education, I have many children with disabilities that I work with, and it is VERY important in the education field to use this "people first" terminology.
I am glad to have an opportunity to add to this forum here, as I am a person with many disabilities myself. Mine are all mental, of course, but they are disabilities none the less! The worst I must say is the depression and the eating disorder. But I must remember...I am not a depressed person, I am a person with depression!
Lets talk about alot of important issues here, lets get as much info out there as we can!
I can't wait to hear form others...
All my love, Dara

I agree FULLY with the subject heading: To heal, we must promote healing! Healing is a different process for different people, and forums such as this and the abuse forum can really aid this process. Sometimes, people just need to know there are others like them. Othertimes, they need to talk and air frustrations. All of this is part of a healing process.

Thank you to Shawn for allowing these forums to come here - a new beautiful home. Thank you Chrissy and Dara for your strength and beauty - may you both continue to shine!

All the best wishes,
Peta.

you're very welcome  :) and thank you Peta for contributing to this forum; your presence and words are appreciated.

take care,
Shawn

Thank you to Peta as well as Shawn said and I would like to say also thank you so much for your support at this forum I greatly appreciate it! I do think we ALL heal from many things and all in a different way and as you said Peta many of us look to others for understanding and it is very comforting to know that there are others like us out there. Some say being unique and different is a blessing for some of us myself including being "different" and labeled as such has led to a nightmare of pain in my past. Being different was very painful for me which I think is why I try to be there for others cuz to be alone can prove to be a very lonely and winding road. I felt alone for a long time in my life and it led to an eating disorder panic attacks and depression. All of which I battle on a daily basis! We all heal differently and I agree Peta this forum and Dara;s forum help add to the healing process no matter which route it is we chose to go. along the way it is forums such as these that are like stepping stones that i hope for many will continue to shine with people like you and Shawn to support us and may other wonderful people how could we go wrong!
                                                       Love always in a day,
                                                        Chrissy