People think “mild” CP means it gets easier with age. That hasn’t been my experience.

A lot of people hear the words "mild cerebral palsy" and assume it barely affects your life. What they don’t see is how the condition can change as you get older. When I was younger, I pushed through a lot of things physically and didn’t think much about it. I worked, stayed active, and built a career I truly loved. But aging with CP has been a very different experience than I expected. Over the years, I’ve noticed more stiffness, more fatigue, and less mobility than I had before. Things that used to take little effort now take planning and energy. The hardest part for me hasn’t even been physical pain. It’s been watching parts of my identity slowly become harder to hold onto. I used to work in a role that depended heavily on communication and being able to engage with people directly. As my speech became more difficult for others to understand, I started noticing changes in how people responded to me. Repeating myself constantly became exhausting. Eventually, I had to step away from work earlier than I ever imagined. That loss hit harder than I expected because work wasn’t just a paycheck. It gave me purpose, structure, and confidence. I think one thing that doesn’t get discussed enough in the CP community is grief. Not grief over who we are, but grief over abilities changing with time. People often talk about children with CP, but not enough about adults aging with it. The long-term physical and emotional impact is real, even for people considered “high functioning” or “mild.” I’ve had to learn that asking for support does not erase my value. And losing certain abilities does not erase the person I’ve spent my whole life becoming. For anyone else aging with CP, you are not imagining the changes, and you are definitely not alone.