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HP-Drarry Lunch nap by -冥茶-

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Merlin-inspired painting I finished a few months ago

Tag list: @myfairkatiecat @aspenaspenaspenaspenaspen @wow-youre-so-pretty @nowjumpinthewater @thatrandomlemononyourcounter1 @stars-and-stuff

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Yup, professionals.

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You wouldn’t last an hour in the asylum where they raised me

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she literally just found about it, she found out about this from a fucking twitter post

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I just saw a post talking about people who are against self diagnosis. And it got me thinking. There are quite a few people who are against it. So this is for those people. If they care.

CW: medical trauma, CSA mention, medical gaslighting, USA specific.

Why We Self Diagnose

Maybe in other parts of the world self diagnosing makes less sense. I don't know how it is in many countries. I can only speak from my limited viewpoint.

But in the USA, that is often all we have.

In the USA if you're not lucky enough to have health insurance through your employer, Medicaid/Medicare (the limited "free" health insurance), or are wealthy enough to afford it, then you simply do not go to the doctor.

A single visit to a primary care doctor can cost at least two weeks worth wages.

Many doctors are passively hostile to patients by way of being dismissive of anything that isn't an acute disease like an infection. Many will just treat your symptoms with medication and tell you your lab tests are "fine" or "normal."

And if you need a specialist you need your primary doctor to refer you to that specialist. And it's a long shot that the specialist is even taking patients, or will take your insurance (if you have it) and seeing them costs even more money that people do not have. If that specialist even exists in your area. Some places simply do not have many specialists.

Many times those specialists will also be dismissive. It's hard to find good doctors.

So when your options are "I guess I'll just suffer with this mystery illness" or "Researching conditions based on my symptoms" you're gonna choose the latter.

And it's not "hurr durr, lemme just Google this real quick. Ah yes, doctor Google says I have ButtAss Disease."

It's "well google says it's ButtAss Disease. Let me go to the ButtAss Disease Subreddit and see if people have similar experiences."

And then you go to Reddit and you find that upon closer inspection the symptoms are similar, but they don't quite present the same. Maybe your acid reflux comes at night, and ButtAss Patients have acid reflux in the morning.

So you keep digging and find SharkBoy and LavaGirl Syndrome (bear with me, I have no spoons today.)

And SharkBoy and LavaGirl Syndrome sufferers have acid reflux in the morning, and they need Mouse Bites to live. But you don't need Mouse Bites to live.

So on and so forth. And often you know you might have either disease. You might have neither.

But this is the best language you have to describe how shitty you feel.

And ButtAss Patients are nice and they tell you that your symptoms are valid. That it helps them to elevate their legs after lunch. And it doesn't cost money to put your feet up after lunch. And it helps you.

And SharkBoy and LavaGirl Syndrome sufferers tell you that your symptoms are valid too. They tell you that eating crackers helps the upset stomach. And so you spent $5 on a box of crackers and it helps.

My point is, people don't self diagnose because they have a disregard for medical science. People self diagnose because medical science has disregarded them.

Medical gaslighting is real and I don't know how often it happens globally, but if you're chronically I'll in the USA its a daily thing.

I didn't go to the doctor much as a kid. If you get sick in America, no you didn't. Shut up and pretend your ear infection doesn't exist until you're delirious with pain.

As an adult my only exposure to doctors took place in an RV owned by the hospital and run by volunteer staff, usually with young nurses right out of school. You had be there at dawn when the RV arrived and wait for the host location to allow the RV to use their location. Sometimes the host location decides last minute that we weren't allowed to be there. You waited from dawn until early afternoon to be seen in a makeshift clinic.

Then I went to a free clinic where the equipment was old and worn and doctors could only prescribe some medications. A doctor in training lectured me for half an hour about my weight when I went in for a dermatology issue on my leg. I was there six fucking hours.

Now, I live in a state with expanded Medicaid. The poor people free insurance. My access to medical care is the greatest it's ever been. And it has gotten me little ahead of what those other two clinics did.

The only difference is the equipment is newer and nicer, and I can sometimes see a specialist that tells me to lose weight. Yeehaw.

The last time I saw my doctor I told her about the CSA I suffered as a kid and how gynecological exams hurt so bad but I want to see if there's damage to prove that what happened to me was real.

She (yes, my doctor is a woman) told me to my face that "luckily that part of the body heals well"

Two minutes earlier she told me she wouldn't help me with my disability case regarding my fibromyalgia because "it looks like a mental health issue. It sounds bad when I say it. But it seems like you don't have much hope about your diagnosis."

Do you understand why people self diagnose yet?

Do you understand why Americans are cheering the death of Brian Thompson?

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You know how there’s a theory that no two people see a colour the exact same way.

Does that mean colour is like

a pigment of your imagination.

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I found a pun that works in both English and Spanish

Where do cats go when they die? Purrgatory.

¿De dónde van los gatos cuando mueren? Purgatorio.

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thoughts on tiktok?

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comic commission for @vfclayr, based on this post by @kkirincorrectquotes

Calli ty so much for commissioning me to draw THE BLORBOS

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I guess this has already been done before, but I couldn't resist. 🤭

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They’re my Roman Empire, your honor.

I swear they are canon and both gay af for each other, your honor. In a soulmate way, even. I swear, your honor.

Anyone who wants the picrew link can just ask :)

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Armin came to visit

Armin meeting them in "the afterlife", he was the last to reach the tree.

-Arlette Moon J

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anyone else remember being 13 on tumblr and every morning youd scroll down until you got to posts from the night before like it was the morning paper 

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its time for people with low iron to stand up for our cause!

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hey guys i'm going to the store can u make sure nothing happens to my chocolate milk