By Chally on 6 January, 2010
I can’t rely on my body to produce all the energy I want anymore, to do what I want anymore. I have to ration out time and energy and the capacity for certain things. I no longer trust that people will stick by me when things get inconvenient, when being my friend gets messy; that [...]
Posted in introspective, life changes | Tagged life, personal
By Annaham on 4 January, 2010
Everything healed up but in a very strange way Years later when it was very obvious that something was very wrong with my face everyone said one or more of the following: It’s the Lord’s will. Just learn to live with it. It’s all in your imagination. Don’t be so self-centered. Shut up and do [...]
Posted in autonomy, blaming, bodies, creative work, disability activism, justice, language, normality, Quotations, resistance, sexuality, social attitudes | Tagged ableism, exclusion, identity, justice, LGBQTAI, personal, poetry, quote, social treatment
By Anna on 17 December, 2009
When he went in for the ultrasound on his neck… Oh, gosh, where do I begin? With the wheelchair inaccessible waiting room (you can wait in the hall!), or the refusal to allow Don’s wheelchair to even be in the room when he was being examined? As though able-bodied people are asked all the time to leave their only means of getting away behind. Plus, you know, the refusal to believe either of us that it’s common for people to play Show & Tell Marfan’s Syndrome.
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged medical care, medical model, mental health, personal
By amandaw on 14 December, 2009
Asking for help is something I have never been good at. It’s rather like standing in front of a car hurdling toward you, intending to push it in the opposite direction. It requires an enormous amount of resistance. And I’m almost certain to come away with some sort of injury. Lying in bed the other [...]
Posted in introspective | Tagged body, chronic illness, disabilities, disability, fibromyalgia, pain, personal, resistance, work
By Anna on 26 November, 2009
One of the hardest things for me in dealing with my mental health condition is my very strong theory that everyone else is having exactly the same problems that I am, but they’re just 8 million times better at dealing with them, and hiding them from everyone else. And thus, I don’t talk about my mental health, much, because everyone else is obviously coping with the same thing, and I’m just a big whiner who can’t cope and fails at everything and is useless and should just run away and everyone will be better and–
Posted in blaming, mental health, social attitudes | Tagged mental health, mental health concerns, mental illness, personal, stigma
By kaninchenzero on 29 October, 2009
On the way home from work the other day, the classical music station in Dallas, WRR 101.1*, played a really good performance of Beethoven’s Bagatelle for Piano in A minor, WoO 59 “Für Elise”. It’s pretty, of course, which is all it needs to be. But every performance (and every work of art and every [...]
Posted in introspective, normality | Tagged communication, difference, happiness, identity, media and pop culture, mobility, normality, participation, personal, pride, social inclusion, stories
By amandaw on 23 October, 2009
(Cross-posted at three rivers fog.) I wrote this yesterday in an extreme fog and do not have the spoons to rework and polish it. Apologies for the brainspill, but these days it’s the only option I have. *** For background, see Ouyang Dan’s post on the problematic aspects of the TV show House. Don’t tell [...]
Posted in blaming, i'm right here, media and pop culture, shaming, social attitudes, Uncategorized | Tagged ableism, abuse, addiction, causation, characters with disabilities, chronic illness, chronic pain, chronic pain conditions, disability, disability in fiction, disabled characters, disclosure, drugs are bad mmm'kay, erasing, fibromyalgia, House M.D., invisibility, invisible disabilities, invisible disability, life, me, medications, myths and misconceptions, pain management, passing, personal, pop culture, privilege, problematic attitudes, shaming, social treatment, stereotypes, stories, television, things people say, work
By amandaw on 20 October, 2009
The mess in my apartment never goes away. We get this room clean, and that room clean, and the other, but rarely all at the same time. Even when we push to get everything in order, there is always something neglected — usually my mess in the second bedroom where I keep all my art [...]
Posted in class issues, feminism, introspective | Tagged chronic illness, chronic pain conditions, disability, life, personal, self-acceptance, self-perception, spoons
By amandaw on 20 October, 2009
Access is an all-consuming endeavor in a disabled person’s life. I love that the disability community learned to frame it that way: it emphasizes that the problem is not the person, their body or their condition; the problem is society’s indifference. Many accessibility solutions are structural; they require collective action — constructing spaces such that [...]
Posted in accessibility, blaming | Tagged accessibility, advice, barriers to access, disability, exclusion, fibromyalgia, illness, invisibility, invisible disabilities, invisible disability, isolation, me, participation, passing, personal, privilege, social inclusion, social treatment, structural vs. individual
By amandaw on 15 October, 2009
(Originally posted November 2008 at three rivers fog.) I had always meant to expand upon this topic, but never found the right words for it, succinct and meaningful. But, well, that’s not exactly my style either. My job situation is still shitty, and I’m currently part-timing at a retail pharmacy as a cashier. (Sample day: [...]
Posted in accessibility, Uncategorized | Tagged ableism, accessibility, barriers to access, chronic illness, disability, health care, illness, invisibility, invisible disability, justice, me, medical care, participation, personal, privilege, problematic attitudes, spoons, stories
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