[nabs-l] Defining Excessively Helpful People and Interactions

[trising]

    I think overly helpful people grab you and pull you to wherever they think you want to go. It is hard to get them to stop and 
actually listen to your question about what restaurants or businesses are near so you can actually make your own choices. Others 
might shout at us or talk to us very slowly, as if the synapses in our brains must take a while to fire. Others ask our companions 
what we want for lunch or give them our change. When a person asks a friend or family member what I want as if I am not there, I 
answer as if I am not there either by saying something like, "She wants a large Coke without ice and some fish and chips." As soon 
as they talk to me, I stop talking as if I am not there because it sounds silly.
    At another time my husband and I were casually walking down the street in the local town where we live. We became aware of a man 
who was positively shrieking, "You missed the bus stop," over and over. My husband and I are both totally blind from birth. We 
finally realized he must be talking to us because no one was reacting to him, and he was not letting up. I said, "We are not going 
to the bus stop," and the man immediately stopped yelling.
    Many times we have had people yelling at us about an obstacle that is between several feet, to several store lengths away. We 
either say Thanks, or say, "I will find it with My cane," to get them to stop yelling. Then, I keep walking until I find the 
obstacle. I have found it makes people nervous when our canes contact an obstacle. However, it is a lot easier to get around an 
obstacle that my cane has already found than one I am trying to skirt without finding it.
Terri Wilcox