Adhd, hEDS, Anxiety…Etc.

Young people can have arthritis too.

There are hundreds of life long conditions and diseases out there that are typically diagnosed between 12 and 30.

There is a vast difference between being tired and having chronic fatigue.

Just because you can’t tell that someone is unwell from looking at them, doesn’t mean that you should assume that they are ok.

Many chronic illnesses are life long, and incurable. Many of them are potentially fatal.

If you have a disease like Lupus, on good days you still feel like you have a bad flu, 24/7.

Many of the medications used to treat chronic conditions have side effects that can really affect someone’s self esteem - like extreme weight gain, skin changes and hair loss.

Most chronic illnesses have very little awareness - its unlikely that you’ve heard of Sjogren’s Syndrome, Scleroderma, Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome or Fibromyalgia.

However these diseases can cause symptoms as varied as joint pain, fatigue, constant nausea, kidney failure, pneumonia, photo sensitivity, full body rashes, paralysis, strokes etc.

"Aww don't lose hope"

There is no hope to be had? Stop pushing your toxic positivity down my throat when I have come to terms with my situation and am grieving already.

Sometimes my hip fucks up and the only way to make it better is to walk on it, carefully, for like an hour.

Sometimes my back hurts in a way that means I can’t use my mobility aids without making it worse.

Sometimes my throat has issues only singing can fix.

So the whole “oh you said you were injured / in pain but then you went and did (__activity__), so clearly you were faking it” thing is entirely fucking meaningless.

losing your hold while you’re on top, careening down on top of your partner in a fit of giggles

harnesses loosening at the one singular moment they shouldn’t

accidentally slipping out and just raw slamming your hips against each other a few times before you notice

body noises. queefing, joints popping, that one moan that kinda sounded weird? who cares, it’s a good time

forgetting where the edge of the bed is in the heat of the moment and almost or actually toppling over off of it

accidentally leaning on someone’s hair

pausing because your pet is clawing for dear life at the door and you can’t concentrate

having to stop because something feels kinda off and it’s more important to figure out what that is

laughter

connection and communication

It’s the American government not allowing us to have over $2,000 at any given time without threatening to take away our only source of income. It’s still not having equal marriage opportunities, I cannot get married to my fiancée without my money being taken away. I bring in $750 a month from SSI. That’s not even enough for rent. (In case you didn’t know, $2,000 isn’t enough to live off of for a month, so to not be able to have it explains enough.)

Ableism is also taking away disabled parking and adding spaces reserved for cops. [That part is specifically aimed at Walmart.] Cops are abled, that’s how they can do their “job”. They’re even allowed to park at the very front of a building, they don’t need their own spaces.

Ableism is claiming a building is accessible when the “accessibility” features are broken or out of date, which can endanger mobility aid users.

Ableism is choosing to attack someone who doesn’t “look” disabled and shame them just because their disability/chronic illness is invisible; it is leaving notes on the cars that belong to disabled people who can walk, yet still need to park in the disabled parking space, that state that they’re “faking”, “going to hell”, or that they should be ashamed of themselves for “taking a spot from someone who actually needs it”. This includes the phrase, “But you don’t look disabled.”

Ableism is stopping autistic children from stimming, forcing kids with ADHD to sit still, infantilizing adults with down syndrome or other conditions because ableds assume that they don’t know what is going on around them.

Ableism is doctors not listening to their patients, the person who knows their body the best, due to medical racism, fatphobia, or misogyny.

Ableism is assuming every disabled person’s condition is the same, and that all treatments are a one size fits all; in reality, our treatment programs, the accommodations we need, which aren’t “special needs”, are all different and work with a case by case foundation.

me saying i’m disabled isn’t negative self talk. it’s just a true statement. and it’s neutral.

like i once had someone say “i wouldn’t say you’re disabled” like dude i can’t stand in the shower without nearly fainting. i can’t even get out of bed most days. i have to sit down when i brush my teeth. i had to drop out of high school because i couldn’t physically endure it. i am disabled. that is not your truth to decide. it’s my reality.

Doctors on medical shows: right I’m ordering every single test or scan available, I want a specialist from every department paged to take a look at this case and I want this group of interns looking into every possible rare disease that this patient might have. We won’t let this patient leave until we’ve gone above and beyond to help them. Let’s go people!

I don't want to live my life in survival mode.