Standard 13

The conditions that promote or limit human functioning.

When I think about what makes things easier or harder for people to function I immediately think about what impact they have on themselves: Their personal mix of attitude, fortitude, prejudices and ignorance. What about them as individuals “makes” them operate on a certain level of productivity? And often times I wonder what is stopping them from improving that productivity? Then, I remember that it takes a lifetime to become a person, and a lifetime is always filled with experiences which truly do shape who we are, how we act, and inevitably our functioning. Often times, our experiences, our place in the world and how it affects us is beyond our control. So I usually conclude, there are inner “conditions that limit (or promote) functioning”, the ones that we can manage and mold. Then there are outer “conditions”, which one can merely notice, and only sometimes begin to manage or mold.

In order to understand and grasp the realities of the conditions and systems that effect people and the way they function I began my examining my own life. I began by identifying, recognizing and naming some of the systems that have influenced and continue to influence me and my life. (Appendix J) (Appendix N). These systems represent the conditions that I have very little control over, can merely recognize and integrate these realities and translate them into understanding how I relate to people and understand them. Some of the ways that I’ve begun to understand how I can manage and mold my inner conditions is in the ways in which I perceive situations I find myself in. For Example:

In had a very slow process of recognizing myself as gay, not bisexual. Within that timeframe, I often found myself in emotional survival mode, completely exhausted and nearly unavailable. Even after I’d built a life that was envied by everyone around me, at times, it was a matter of fundamental happiness and so very excruciating to pull myself away from such stability and hard earned success in relationship and in life in order to pursue that personal peace. All the conflict that came of me (finally) sharing my coming out with my family was only began to be manageable after I was able to recognize the conflict as our individual processes. After some research about coming out I learned that it most always mimics the grief process. I was able to begin seeing my families and my functioning as following a (somewhat) predictable path of grief. That small bit of understanding and perspective was further complicated when everyone was at a different place with it all. I made a presentation that demonstrates how complicated this can really be. It also shows how perspective about the process of challenges in our lives can lead to embodying the seemingly endless patience and resiliency needed to make it through very difficult interpersonal challenges. (Appendix L)

As a helper of people, I will always consider both the inner and outer conditions. One example of the outer conditions is FAS (Fetal Alcohol Syndrome). I had the utmost pleasure of completing a life book for a young girl who was barely approaching puberty who had been dealt a healthy hand of outer conditions. Her parents were not capable of her proper care, and she had been in the foster system most of her life. The young girl suffered from symptoms of FAS due to her mothers’ severe alcoholism which spanned throughout her prenatal development. My reflections on this project exemplify this example of outer conditions and some of the ways in which they affect her functioning. (Appendix K).


In many ways the conditions that promote or limit human functioning have to do with the individual and in other ways it is more related to the external realities that face people. Mostly though, those conditions are tied very closely with the systems that people are influenced by. Awareness of one self and ones experiences goes a very long way in influencing the levels of success in which people function.