#cuf post

And I just wanted to say, if you're disabled, you don't need other people to validate that. I know that social media and the work place and family and strangers really make it feel like you do need that validation, but your body is broken with or without that validation. You're going to suffer anyway, even if people think you look "healthy enough."

Romanticization of chronic illnesses, especially including mental illnesses, is such a slippery slope because it does make things feel a little better. It makes you feel seen and loved despite it all. But that surface comfort worms its way into you like an addiction. It feels so nice and wonderful especially at first then you find yourself dependent on it to cope then you realize how it's hurting you psychologically. And even when you catch yourself and you get yourself to indulge less, you still get those unhealthy thoughts like I just did and it is incredibly difficult to recognize that especially when they get triggered with what seems by random things, things that aren't directly romanticized.

So, I just wanted to say, my friends who cope by romanticizing, I see you. I see your struggle with yourself and your identity as being disabled, mentally ill, chronically ill, addicted- I see you and I'm right there with you. I feel like we never get talked about in a compassionate way. It's always in a villainizing light. I'm here to tell you that you are not a villain, if your coping mechanism gets you through the day and you are in progress of getting better/maintaining, there is nothing wrong with what you're doing. We all have our own vices.

And for the people who chastise us for romanticizing what's wrong with us, just because someone's way of living is different to yours, that doesn't make them necessarily wrong or evil. We all have our own way of surviving each day.

This is not an ed/sh blog but I do struggle with both.