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Ataxia

Home Safety When Balance Is an Issue: Small Changes That Make a Real Difference

Michael MantzMay 22, 2026Ataxia Awareness, Overall Wellness, Resilient Voices

Most people don’t think about their home as a risk until it becomes one. Tricky steps. Slippery rugs. A bathroom with nothing to grab onto. For most people, these are minor inconveniences. For anyone dealing with balance issues, they can be something else entirely – the difference between a normal Tuesday and a trip to...

Experience Is a Gift. It’s Also a Trap.

Michael MantzMay 15, 2026Ataxia Awareness, Overall Wellness, Resilient Voices

There’s a particular kind of confidence that comes with experience. Not arrogance exactly, just a quiet certainty that you’ve seen enough to know how things work. The mistakes get made, the hits get taken, the learning happens. A perspective gets earned. The problem is that the same confidence can quietly close you off. Not all...

No, I’m Not Drunk: What Walking with Ataxia Is Really Like

Michael MantzMay 8, 2026Ataxia Awareness, Resilient Voices

Walking shouldn’t require concentration. Your body should handle it in the background without asking for your opinion. Mine has follow-up questions. Not out loud. Nobody ever asks. But I can see it: the look and the recalculation, as they decide that something is going on here and needs an explanation. So let me help you...

“So Have You Tried Yoga?” And Other Well-Meaning Things People Say

Michael MantzMay 1, 2026Ataxia Awareness, Resilient Voices

A field guide to the well-meaning things people say when they’re trying to help There’s a moment that happens when you tell someone about your diagnosis. You can almost see it – the quick calculation behind their eyes as they figure out what to say next. Most people land somewhere kind. Some land somewhere memorable....

Living Without a Finish Line: What Spinocerebellar Ataxia Taught Me About Uncertainty

Michael MantzApril 20, 2026Ataxia Awareness, My Story, Resilient Voices

There’s a moment, somewhere between the kitchen and the hallway, where I catch myself paying attention to how I’m walking. Not because anything dramatic happened. Just a slight shift, a half-second of recalibration, and suddenly I’m aware of my feet in a way most people never are. It happens in my own house. A place...

When Head Tremors Return: My Experience with Cerebellar Ataxia and Titubation

Michael MantzApril 11, 2026Ataxia Awareness, My Story

This is Part 2 of my head tremor journey. If you missed the original, you can read it here: Shaking the Silence: My Intense Journey with Head Tremors Almost three years. That’s how long I had gone without an episode. Long enough to wonder, maybe even quietly hope, that they were done with me. They...

The Strange Things You Notice When Balance Starts Changing

Michael MantzMarch 20, 2026Ataxia Awareness, Resilient Voices

Balance is one of those things you never really think about. Walking across a parking lot, stepping off a curb, and moving through a crowd… your body just handles it. Thousands of little adjustments are happening every minute, and they stay completely in the background. You don’t notice them because, honestly, you’ve never had a...

Overthinking When the Stakes Are Real

Michael MantzMarch 7, 2026Ataxia Awareness, Resilient Voices

When “Stop Worrying” Doesn’t Help Most advice about overthinking starts from the same assumption. That you’re worried about something that probably won’t happen. Or that your brain is jumping ahead for no good reason. You’re told to stay present, let go of hypothetical outcomes, and focus on what’s actually in front of you. And sometimes,...

How Blood Sugar May Affect Balance and Coordination in Ataxia

Michael MantzFebruary 25, 2026Ataxia Awareness, Overall Wellness, Resilient Voices

There are days when nothing obvious has changed. You slept fine. Your symptoms feel about the same as usual. And yet your balance is just a little less reliable. You misjudge a step or reach for something, and it takes a second longer than it should. Walking across the room takes slightly more effort than...

When It Feels Like You’ve Lost a Part of Yourself After a Major Life/Health Change

Michael MantzFebruary 20, 2026Ataxia Awareness, Overall Wellness, Resilient Voices

There’s a moment after a major life change – injury, illness, relocation, relationships, career changes – when something feels like it disappeared. Not paused, not adapting, just gone. It doesn’t arrive dramatically. It shows up in quiet sentences: “I’m not that person anymore.”“That chapter’s over.”“I can’t do that the way I used to.” Over time,...