I know that the most romanticized version of disabled people is “the happy cripple”, who is always laughing and smiling and making jokes where their illness is the punchline, and it makes them more palatable for ablebodied people to be friends with but like.
You don’t have to be that.
You are not a bad disabled person for not being positive all the time. You get to be angry. And upset. And pissed off. And show emotions and faces that are not happy or positive or joking. You do not have to cut yourself down or file your edges to make yourself more acceptable to others who don’t understand.
me when someone tells me shit like “you know all these meds are actually worse for you they turn you into a zombie ://”, “you should try yoga”, “why dont you exercise more”:
It pisses me off because the disability conversation only happens within our own, small community. You don’t see body positive and social justice blogs every talking about it. Ever. It’s only within the disability community. Think about all the SJ blogs and accounts that talk about everything except disability.
I want to see abled people talking about it in the same way white people talk about BLM and straight people talk about gay rights.
I want us to have our own inside jokes and memes, in the same why queer folks have “straight™” memes and POC have White People memes.
Why are we still marginalized within the margin?
If your social justice includes every minority except for disabled people, there is something inherently wrong with that.
One of the best feelings is when you can use your experiences and sufferings from chronic illness to good use.
Whenever someone is dealing with a symptom that I commonly have – my surplus of coping/preventative methods emerge and I’m usually the only person who understands how terrible it is. It’s easy to forget how bad a migraine, immense stomach cramping, back spasms, etc. are if you don’t get them every day/week!
For example: Someone living at my house mentioned to me that they have a migraine and feel dizzy whenever they stand up. I asked if they had a tense neck/back and they didn’t even realize they did until I mentioned it. I gave them some magnesium, made them drink some water, then gave them a massage using oils and focusing on the points that usually are bad for me with migraines. Apparently the massage really helped with their back and to ease the edge off of the migraine. They’re resting now but later I’m going to run a bath for them and boil some herbs to add into it later.
Compassion goes a long way and it’s something I don’t often get when it comes to my suffering. I hope to never, ever lose my compassion and warmth and that I’ll always remember to use my suffering to help others in need (while also taking care of my needs of course!)
if you think disability is a bad word and a disabled person calling themselves disabled is a negative thing then maybe you need to change the way you think about the word instead of shaming disabled people for using it.
I get really tired of abled people making suggestions to me on how to cure my illness.
I know most of them mean well, but it’s like, c’mon. I’ve lived with this for years. You REALLY think in 5 minutes you’re gonna spring a new idea on me that neither I nor my doctors has ever thought of?
Heatherwitch 