#disability acceptance

People have value just on the basis of being people, but apparently that’s a radical idea to a lot of folks.

I’m not “giving up on myself” or “holding myself back” by calling myself disabled. I’m literally just accepting the truth of the limits of my brain and body. That’s a hell of a lot more beneficial to me, and safer, than it is to push past my limits to prove I have a value of some kind.

Acting like a trait like this is negative and bad and something to stay away from is damaging for everyone, disabled or not, and also just straight up ridiculous. It’s like telling a person with brown hair that no, their hair isn’t actually brown and that’s such a mean thing to say to themselves, and to not “give up” because someday they’ll grow blond hair if they try hard enough. If you think that analogy is ridiculous, it’s because it’s supposed to be.

I have been on a bunch of meds over the last few years. Some of them didn't help at all (e.g. the melatonin I just trialled for a month to combat insomnia). Some of them helped but the side effects were just as bad or worse than the symptom they were treating. And some of them helped for a little while and then I developed a resistance.