Archives

  • Psychiatrists see reasonable adaptations to CFS, label it “cause” and “maladaptation”
    There’s a whole industry that involves measuring the survival techniques and truths of people with CFS, then pointing the finger at them for causing their own illness with their Scientifically! Proven! personality “deficits”. Here’s the latest product of that industry. They took 38 ...
  • Guest Post: Why I didn’t celebrate “World Mental Health Day”
    Everyone, please welcome our first guest poster, Arwyn of Raising My Boychick. Arwyn lives in the United States’ Pacific Northwest with The Man, the Boychick, bipolar type 2, and migraines. When the intersection of her neurology and the kyriarchal society she lives in allows, she writes feminist thoughts inspired by parenting a presumably-straight white probably-male ...
  • Who hates to hear they look great?
    (Originally posted July 2007 at three rivers fog) Over half of the chronically ill*: In a recent survey of 611 chronically ill individuals, done by the National Invisible Chronic Illness Awareness Week committee, 53.27% of the respondents said that the most frustrating or annoying comment people make about their illness is “But you look so good!” “Although telling ...
  • Mental Health Services and the Welfare System
    The United States cash aid welfare system underwent a major overhaul in 1995, when Congress and Clinton famously “ended welfare as we know it.” There were a whole lot of important changes made to the system then, but the most significant was the imposition of 5 year lifetime limits on welfare receipt. Under the previous ...
  • Television & Disability: Joan of Arcadia
    The family dynamics playing out here all feel very realistic to me. It’s obvious that they brought in someone to discuss seriously how one lives and recovers from such an accident, and talked a lot with the creators and writers about how disability plays out within a family. The Girardis are not victims ...
  • Recommended Reading for October 12, 2009
    Recommended Reading.
  • On ambient intimacy and assistive devices
    I was having a discussion about ambient intimacy in a couple of elsewheres, where I tried (and possibly failed) to say that what is so reviled by opinion editors and other meatsnobs can be useful in all sorts of ways. I like the ...
  • Outrageous pre-existing conditions
    (Originally posted a month ago at three rivers fog; in the meantime, news also came out that things like acne were considered pre-existing conditions as well: consider any and all further outrage well and fully included in the subject of this post.) You’ve undoubtedly heard the news already. A history of domestic violence or C-section are ...
  • Stop and think: invisible access for invisible disabilities
    This is my first personal post about being sick. A “coming-out”, to some of my online friends. And a whole lot of elaboration, for those who know I’m sick, but don’t know the details. It’s taken me ages to write, and I haven’t ...
  • Transparency and Feedback
    It is important to all of the contributors here at FWD that readers and commenters be able to provide feedback on the site . It’s also important to us that you can see the processes we use and know how we respond to that feedback and address it on the site. So even though we’re ...