Super Fucked Up That Having The Feels-like-shit Disorder Makes You Feel Like Shit

growing up, my mum always told me, whenever i went to the doctors or any sort of health professional, that it was important that i told them that i was hypermobile. she'd done the tests with me (herself being hypermobile and disabled in large part because of it) and though she didn't know the details, she knew that hypermobility was important to have in my health record.

so it was to my great surprise and displeasure that, whenever i told doctors i was hypermobile, it was skipped over. never addressed, never touched on, not even a comment to belie what that meant for me. i myself didn't know the impact hypermobility could have on a person, but my mother had been insistent about that fact. it was important, so why did no one else seem to think so?

i grew up with kids in school who were on the extreme ends of hypermobility. i knew a boy in middle school who could put both feet behind his head. i knew a girl in high school with long, spindly fingers who showed me how far backwards her arm could bend.

both of them had health problems, which became more profound as they aged. i never knew the details, but it stuck out that they were hypermobile, and so was i, and with my own health declining there HAD to be a connection.

common knowledge gives the vague definition of hypermobility as extra stretchy muscles, of being double-jointed. it comes with warnings not to push your hypermobile body into the extremes. don't overextend, you will hurt yourself.

the warnings are warranted. the importance isn't overplayed. these things i knew, but i didn't know why. and without knowing why, they were warnings that i could never truly obey, despite how conservative i became with my movements in a vain attempt to protect what little ability i had left.

hypermobility is NOT stretchy muscles. muscles are supposed to stretch. in fact, it's important to their health (those conservative movements prolly hurt more than helped!). hypermobility affects connectives tissues, and lands under the umbrella of Ehlers-Danlos Sydromes (there are a few) which can range in severity from affecting skin and tendons to affecting blood vessels and organs.

severity is rare, and much easier to catch. this post is for the people who are "a little hypermobile" so that they can understand what makes their body different.

a muscle and its associated tendons are like a hammock. the muscle is the fabric you lie in, stretching to accomodate the load. tendons are the rope that attaches the fabric to the trees, providing a secure anchor for the muscle to operate.

so, what happens when the ropes on the hammock are also stretchy? well, you sit in the hammock and your ass hits the ground.

now imagine that the fabric of the hammock has the ability to clench like a muscle. a normal hammock doesn't need to work that hard to stop ass from meeting ground, because it has sturdy anchors. a hammock with stretchy rope, however, must exert several times more effort, because the more the muscle pulls, the more the tendons stretch.

in short, hypermobility forces your muscles to work harder, because they must first pass the threshold of stretch the tendons are capable of before it can actually do the task it's meant to do. the stretchier the tendons, the harder the muscle needs to clench, the easier it is to overwork.

this info reframed everything i was doing with my body. small tasks of strength required the effort of much larger tasks, and larger tasks ranged from extremely difficult to impossible. holding my arms up so i could work above my head required monumental effort. with an anatomical peculiarity of the feet, i needed to use several muscles in my calves and hips just to stand without losing balance.

so no fucking wonder i crashed and burned in my 20s, when everything i did took all of my strength to accomplish. no wonder i would contort myself out of shape, so flexible that i could anchor myself into extreme poses just to give my muscles a moment of relief, overstretching myself without ever realizing why, and what damage i could be doing.

so, some things to remember:

overextending isn't good for you, but it shouldn't be your biggest concern. instead, be aware of overexertion, both how LONG you are using a muscle without breaks and how HARD you are using it.

small, frequent breaks are your best friend if you need to do something for awhile.

when you take breaks, stretch the muscles you'd been using.

if you need to exert effort to maintain a pose (whether it's sitting, standing, etc) examine whether you need to be clenching those muscles, and why.

actually whenever you are using muscles, try to train yourself to use as few as possible. you can practice by sitting or standing, and relaxing as many muscles as you can before you tip over. finding a sense of balance can make your life so much easier.

become acquainted with what relaxed muscles feel like. chronic tension can distort your perception of this, and result in habitual tension.

so yeah. if you're hypermobile, that's important. don't let a doctor's dismissal make you think otherwise. take care of yourself and know what you are and aren't capable of.

I got the Top 4.47% on this English Vocabulary test

Something I find interesting is that even though Bryke reduced Katara to a mom and a healer, they couldn't even do that right.

Katara is a mom. What was her relationship like with her kids? How did her kids feel about her? Was she a good mom? Who knows? Bryke didn't care enough to address it. Everything about her kids revolves around Aang and his bad parenting. What about her grandkids? Well she has no relationship with them. They barely know her.

Katara is a great healer (instead of great waterbender). Are we shown how great her skills have gotten? Nope! She fails every time she tries to heal someone on-screen just to show how bad the affliction is.

So Katara was there to serve as a trophy wife and baby machine for Aang, and once she served that purpose, Bryke didn't give a damn about her. She has no known accomplishments in her adult life (banning bloodblending doesn't count because it didn't accomplish anything). And after Aang dies, she's just a sad, lonely widow.

Fuck yeah it has

Ars Technica

Sony is erasing digital libraries that were supposed to be accessible “forever”

Casualties afoot as Sony merges Funimation with 2021-acquired Crunchyroll.

reminder that digital libraries aren’t owned, also why pirating digital content is a necessity

Some modern au for fem dabihawks weekend over on Twitter 🙏

a few sketches of the heros aspect au by @tashacee since it finished recently!! to be loved is to be changed.....

if i think about the ancient hero too hard i WILL be sobbing thank you very much this is a promise and a threat too actually

Here’s a list of miscellaneous children’s shows with links to full episodes for whenever you wish to watch them!

𐐪𐑂 Strawberry Shortcake (2003)

𐐪𐑂 Bluey

𐐪𐑂 My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic

𐐪𐑂 Batman: The Animated Series

𐐪𐑂 My Friend Rabbit

𐐪𐑂 Care Bears (1985)

𐐪𐑂 Care Bears: Unlock the Magic

𐐪𐑂 Rupert

𐐪𐑂 Spot the Dog

𐐪𐑂 The Paz Show

𐐪𐑂 Maggie and the Ferocious Beast

𐐪𐑂 Miss Spider’s Sunny Patch Friends

𐐪𐑂 Little Bear

𐐪𐑂 Rolie Polie Olie

𐐪𐑂 Babar

𐐪𐑂 64 Zoo Lane

𐐪𐑂 The Upside Down Show

𐐪𐑂 Rubberdubbers

𐐪𐑂 Monster High (G1)

𐐪𐑂 Monster High (G3)

𐐪𐑂 Ruby Gloom

𐐪𐑂 Super Mario Brothers Super Show

𐐪𐑂 Growing Up Creepie

𐐪𐑂 Tutenstein

𐐪𐑂 The Magic School Bus

𐐪𐑂 Angelina Ballerina

𐐪𐑂 Moomin (1990)

𐐪𐑂 Whisker Haven: Tales with the Palace Pets

𐐪𐑂 Enchantimals: Tales from Everwilde

𐐪𐑂 Catch! Teenieping

𐐪𐑂 Onegai! My Melody

𐐪𐑂 Little Twin Stars

𐐪𐑂 Sugarbunnies

𐐪𐑂 Calico Critters

Tell your addict friends you're proud of them.

Yes even if they are still actively in addiction.

Yes even if they relapsed. Idc if they've been sober a day, a week, a month, a year, a decade.

Yes even if they don't plan on or feel comfortable quitting/going into recovery.

Yes even if you don't think their addiction is serious, or if you think their DOC isn't "that bad."

YES even if they have been to rehab or detox multiple times.

July is disability pride month, and addiction is just as much a disability as any other. Addicts are people too, please do not forget to advocate for us too. Not every single illness is something you can uwu-fy, infantilize, or glamourize.

Shout out to the ten year old who just got diagnosed. Shout out to the housebound fourteen year old. Shout out to the eighteen year old who can’t go to the university they wanted. Shout out to the twenty two year old who can’t get a job. Shout out to the twenty six year old with a caretaker. Shout out to the thirty year old who can’t buy their own house.

Shout out to young disabled people. We exist.