When abled people are involved, the concept of "doing it once in a while for a few seconds doesn't mean you can do it consistently on command like it's nothing" is easily understood.
For example, if someone is able to walk outside without a jacket in the cold to get the mail, everyone would easily understand that they'd still need a jacket if they were outside for a prolonged period of time. If someone is able to hold their breath underwater for a few seconds, everyone would easily understand that they'd still need an oxygen tank in order to stay underwater indefinitely.
But when disabled people are involved, that concept is somehow forgotten. You can stand for a few seconds? You must not actually need that wheelchair. You can socialize once in a long while if the conditions are exactly right? You must not actually struggle to socialize and any struggle you think you have is just fear and negativity. You can be physically active for an hour on a good day? You must not actually be too disabled to work. You have a lot of knowledge on a topic because it's a special interest of yours? You must be "smart" and any bad grades you get are because you're lazy.
i be checking my phone like someone cares about me lol
actually though medical trauma is often really glossed over in general discussions and depictions of disability. i always get the sense that fiction mis-attributes medical trauma to hating being disabled but like. even people who are perfectly fine with their disability can experience extensive and severe medical trauma. people who are diagnosed or undiagnosed. people who were born disabled or became disabled after birth. you have to submit yourself constantly to the whims of people with significant power over you! you're forced to consent to things that you might find invasive in order to access healthcare. if you're trying to access healthcare you have to expose your difficulties, sometimes pain, sometimes suffering up for someone else's dissection and perusal. and it feels like shit even when they don't dismiss you or berate you, or assault you, or gaslight you, or deny you healthcare. god help you if you're also trans or black or brown or can't speak the local language well or a number of other intersecting issues
if i ever interacted with you and it was awkward just know im sorry and painfully aware that sometimes i come off like a person who is having the first conversation of their life
people who assign morality to disabilities: you are not above becoming disabled. you will do everything right and you might still find that one day you are not able-bodied anymore. disability and morality have no correlation.
went to my general practitioner and suddenly got diagnosed with post covid and cfs. after he had not taken my symptoms seriously in the past. after years of medical gaslighting. i mean i still think its mecfs but thats probably as close as it gets. which is so much better than nothing. nevertheless i don't really seem to feel much about it even after i've recovered for over a week from this draining excursion. just endless exhaustion
Sometimes it feels like i am already dead. Not part of anyones life anymore. Locked up in my flat. Just a liability for my parents who dont even like me. Like a ghost who is damned to haunt this room, but still has pain and wifi.
visibly disabled people will present others with the most basic and easy to understand request like “please don’t talk to me like I am a small child” and in response people will just start monologuing about how difficult and confusing this is for them and how they’re doing their best and how they need patience and understanding too and it’s so fucking tiring lol
you know as disabled people it's actually pretty scary that you can't trust your doctors. like people who have medical trauma or distrust or dislike doctors and nurses aren't doing it for fun. we need these guys to help with our lives. we need healthcare to stay alive or to stop from getting worse, or to function at all. but often when you're dismissed and not communicated with you're left floundering and often have to make decisions yourself without that specialist knowledge. sometimes doctors know less than you about your disability anyway. sometimes they're wrong and give you advice that's detrimental to what you need or want, and you kinda have to just trust that the next guy is also not wrong. i think we're pretty lucky if we can find other people with our condition who are well researched in it. but i still think that uncertainty is something that disabled people shouldn't have to navigate
Some people don’t want to hear this but sometimes accessibility is not sustainable or eco-friendly. Disabled people sometimes need straws, or pre-made meals in plastic containers, or single-use items. Just because you can work with your foods in their least processed and packaged form doesn’t mean everyone else can.