Celebrating achievements

People see me doing something now and they say well done you have done that really well.  But I don’t really understand why they are saying it.  I don’t feel a sense of achievement if it is something I could do before my brain went wrong.  It is hard for people to understand this and I suppose it has been hard for me too.  I think it is easier for other people looking at me as they see more easily what I may be getting wrong day to day and the help that I sometimes need.  These are not major events that I am talking about, well not for me.  I was doing a maths course recently which I passed and people thought it was wonderful.  I was very happy mainly because I found it quite hard and was glad it was over.  But it was pretty basic maths that I would have done at primary school so why did people think it was such a big achievement? How can I celebrate something that I used to be able to do?  Someone talked to us at Headway a couple of weeks ago that we should celebrate our achievements but I just find it so hard to do this if I was able to do this before.  It is hard for people to understand.  A few months ago I did manage to do something that afterwards felt really good.  I went on my first holiday on my own.  I managed to arrange and book it myself and organised how to get there.  It was an outdoor activity holiday for people with disabilities.  I had a great time and every day I did something new.  Rock climbing, abseiling, yachting and horse riding.  These were all things that I hadn’t done before and doing them all really made me feel a sense of achievement, finally.  I know I should be proud of all the things that I have managed to do and I am so grateful for all the wonderful help that I have had.  When I started driving again after three years  and when I went back to work were all hollow achievements for me but great ones for those around me.  I have written about the photography course that I am doing now.  It is very technical but something I haven’t done before so everything I do is an achievement and one that I celebrate.  The greatest celebration that I have had in the last six years is reaching my 50th birthday and for me that is the greatest achievement of all.