#I have invisible disabilities!

[mythicalcoolkid]

You don't wish your disability was worse or more visible, you wish your disability was taken seriously. Please stop confusing the two, I guarantee you would not get the support you need JUST by being more severe or more visible. Please listen to visibly disabled people when we tell you it isn't better on our side

[hellyeahsickaf]

I found an extremely dope disability survival guide for those who are homebound, bedbound, in need of disability accommodations, or would otherwise like resources for how to manage your life as a disabled person. (Link is safe)

It has some great articles and resources and while written by people with ME/CFS, it keeps all disabilities in mind. A lot of it is specific to the USA but even if you're from somewhere else, there are many guides that can still help you. Some really good ones are:

How to live a great disabled life- A guide full of resources to make your life easier and probably the best place to start (including links to some of the below resources). Everything from applying for good quality affordable housing to getting free transportation, affordable medication, how to get enough food stamps, how to get a free phone that doesn't suck, how to find housemates and caregivers, how to be homebound, support groups and Facebook pages (including for specific illnesses), how to help with social change from home, and so many more.

Turning a "no" into a "yes"- A guide on what to say when denied for disability aid/accommodations of many types, particularly over the phone. "Never take no for an answer over the phone. If you have not been turned down in writing, you have not been turned down. Period."

How to be poor in America- A very expansive and helpful guide including things from a directory to find your nearest food bank to resources for getting free home modifications, how to get cheap or free eye and dental care, extremely cheap internet, and financial assistance with vet bills

How to be homebound- This is pretty helpful even if you're not homebound. It includes guides on how to save spoons, getting free and low cost transportation, disability resources in your area, home meals, how to have fun/keep busy while in bed, and a severe bedbound activity master list which includes a link to an audio version of the list on Soundcloud

Master List of Disability Accommodation Letters For Housing- Guides on how to request accommodations and housing as well as your rights, laws, and prewritten sample letters to help you get whatever you need. Includes information on how to request additional bedrooms, stop evictions, request meetings via phone, mail, and email if you can't in person, what you can do if a request is denied, and many other helpful guides

Special Laws to Help Domestic Violence Survivors (Vouchers & Low Income Housing)- Protections, laws, and housing rights for survivors of DV (any gender), and how to get support and protection under the VAWA laws to help you and/or loved ones receive housing and assistance

Dealing With Debt & Disability- Information to assist with debt including student loans, medical debt, how to deal with debt collectors as well as an article with a step by step guide that helped the author cut her overwhelming medical bills by 80%!

There are so many more articles, guides, and tools here that have helped a lot of people. And there are a lot of rights, resources, and protections that people don't know they have and guides that can help you manage your life as a disabled person regardless of income, energy levels, and other factors.

Please boost!

[inkskinned]

it is hard to explain but there is something so unwell about the cultural fear of ugliness. the strange quiet irradiation of any imperfect sight. the pores and the stomachs and the legs displaced into a digital trashbin. somehow this effect spilling over - the removal of a grinning strangers in the back of a picture. of placing more-photogenic clouds into a frame. of cleaning up and arranging breakfast plates so the final image is of a table overflowing with surplus - while nobody eats, and instead mimes food moving towards their mouth like tantalus.

ever-thinner ever-more-muscled ever-prettier. your landlord's sticky white paint sprayed over every surface. girlchildren with get-ready-with-me accounts and skincare routines. beige walls and beige floors and beige toys in toddler hands. AI-generated "imagined prettier" birds and bugs and bees.

pretty! fuckable! impossible! straighten teeth. use facetune and lightroom and four other products. remove the cars along the street from the video remove the spraypaint from the garden wall remove the native plants from their home, welcome grass. welcome pretty. let the lot that walmart-still-owns lay fallow and rotting. don't touch that, it's ugly! close your eyes.

erect anti-homelessness spikes. erect anti-bird spikes. now it looks defensive, which is better than protective. put the ramp at the back of the building, you don't want to ruin the aesthetic of anything.

you are a single person in this world, and in this photo! don't let the lives of other people ruin what would otherwise be a shared moment! erase each person from in front of the tourist trap. erase your comfortable shoes and AI generate platforms. you weren't smiling perfectly, smile again. no matter if you had been genuinely enjoying a moment. you are not in a meadow with friends, you're in a catalogue of your own life! smile again! you know what, forget it.

we will just edit the right face in.

[lupusbaby]

Being chronically ill is like

“It’s fine”

“It’s fine”

“It’s fine”

*complete mental breakdown because you can’t do this anymore*

“It’s fine”

[colourmeastonished]

Body swap movie where one of them has invisible disabilities and when the other one lands in their body they immediately collapse catatonic on the floor from the pain and fatigue and the first one is like 'oh damn guess I don't have to worry that I'm faking it anymore'

[sneakygreenbean]

personal observations made by a new cane user:

you do not need to be in constant pain to own a cane.

folding canes have a clasp or band to keep them folded. losing the band is a pain in the ass.

you will get dirty looks

it does not matter what age you are. you will get dirty looks.

you have to hold it in the opposite hand as the disabled leg. this is fortunate, as I am right handed, so i hold it in my left hand to support my right leg.

people will try to steal your cane from you.

when standing still, I hold it in my right hand unless i need to do something right handedly. this does not work as well as i thought it would.

being visibly physically disabled is difficult. having a mobility aid will help with pain and movement, but some people don't get them because visible disability is treated with disgust.

if someone meets you for the first time, and you don't have your cane, then they will like you more, but they will not believe you are actually disabled.

if someone meets you for the first time, and you have your cane, they will not treat you the same.

the majority of other cane and mobility aid users I have met are homeless. I live close to a big city.

People do not want to see you being disabled.

you will not hear of the benefits of using a cane from anyone who does not use a cane.

no one will prepare you for the world of being visibly physically disabled. however bad you think we have it is usually not from the disability at all. I can deal with pain and I can deal with an indisposed left hand.

the hardest part of being disabled is the fact that no one will care until you make them care.

the disabled seats on trains are a suggestion

the disabled seats on buses are a suggestion.

you will have a different experience with using a cane than I have had.

your hand will become tired. you are using it as a leg.

your cane is legally a part of your body. this will not stop some people.

you are not your disability. but it will affect you.

i love you

theres always an invisible someone who has it worse. that person will not be affected or offended by your use of a cane. take the damn ibuprofen. put the folded cane in your bag. ask your friends for help. gd knows they need help sometimes too.

you will have to learn that things will be impossible to you. you may not run as fast anymore. you may not become a skater, like you always wanted to be. you may be left behind when everyone else runs ahead.

you deserve better.

your cane handle gets dirty. wash it.

some days pain is worse. some days you will feel it the moment you wake up.

no one deserves pain. the human condition is not to suffer. we deserve better. we deserve to be loved and not tolerated. we deserve to be seen better than from the corners of eyes. we deserve to be heard better than an afterthought at a meeting.

be quick to care for yourself. I love you.

[ancient-reverie]

a moment of silence for all us disabled ones who had to watch each of their friends move on with their lives without you and get jobs, go to school, have partners come and go, get engaged and move house etc.

shout out to my fellow struggling people who are still sitting in the same bedroom they grew up in. the ones who can't get a job, can't make new friends, can't find a partner or partners, can't move house and can't go to school.

I hope one day we can all find someone to at least sit with us in our rooms. I see you and I understand... and I'm sorry we can't be that person for each other

[sickly-sapphic]

this disability pride month you can help disabled people by continuing to mask up, using appropriate masks (KN95 or N95) and appropriate masking technique (wash your hands before and after putting it on, don't touch the front, make sure there's no gaping) 🫧

[noagskryf]

"i wish i could unmask wherever i went." "i wish i was visibly disabled."

Okay, fine.

Do you also wish you were pulled out of class and asked if you've taken illegal substances because you weren't masking?

Do you wish you were just not allowed in class sometimes because of your symptoms being disruptive?

Do you wish parents would pull their children away from you because you walk funny and make weird noises?

Do you wish your parents got sympathy glances whenever youre out in public with them?

Do you wish all this? Or do you wish you were more accepted by society?

EDIT: i think im not very good at explaining myself, this post is targeted at people who say "i wish i was visibly disabled" and then go on to deny that visibly disabled people experience a lot of ableism and danger because of it. this isn't targeted at people who wish they didnt have to hide themselves.

[stellaltumi]

shoutout to all the fellow disabled people who spread awareness and advocacy even when they have no energy to do so, I see you, I love you, and you are so deeply appreciated. your story has the potential to be someone else's survival guide.

[imlittlebitdie]

So now in the latest saga of Lando Norris Trying to Make Me Hate Him, we have Lando *checks notes* being shitty towards other drivers that had heatstroke after Singapore.

First of all, someone should introduce rich boy to the idea of “class consciousness”. Instead of tearing down his fellow drivers for health issues after the race (that he implied he was also feeling), he should direct his ire to the people in charge.

Why not use the collective power they have as drivers to influence a change? That’s the entire reason for a driver’s union.

Why is he denigrating people’s health issues (which he is in no position to judge as he is not a medical professional), when instead he could be amplifying their experience and his own to call for change.

Lando sees other people suffering and says, “why do they get a free pass, I suffered too.” He sees their health being put at risk and he judges the driver and the team for looking out for them.

Max, his own best friend, told him “you don’t know what they’re going through.” And he doesn’t, Mercedes has been having a problem with their cockpit getting too hot even before Singapore. There’s been no indications that that has been fixed.

But instead of saying, “yeah maybe you have a point.” Lando instead says, “they don’t know mine.” Again, here it’s either Lando gets the focus or no one should. It has to be about him.

And either way, if he does feel like this…he doesn’t need to say it.

It’s perfectly normal to keep shitty opinions to yourself, but he seems to lack a certain level of self-awareness and discernment for that level of self-control.

Lando Norris, I tried very hard but you’ve made me not like you.

[cosmiccripple]

yknow what? i think more of you lot need to hear that you deserve good things. you aren't disabled because you 'deserve it' or whatever nonsense your mind has conjured up and even if you did cause your disability it still doesn't mean you deserve it. shut up and let me love you, fiend.

[catherine-sketches]

Thinking about Charles Xavier, who is simultaneously aware of everyone but at the same time not because if he was himself to the fullest people find him upsetting and rude and nosy

Thinking about his unshakable sense of morality, right and wrong and justice that he formed at the age of 9 and has kept ever since, with modifications along the years but those core values remain

Thinking about how the overstimulation of a thousand voices in his head drove him to self medicate to the point of nearly addiction

Thinking about how he has difficulty reading people when his power is not in use, ending up saying the worst things without meaning to upset no one

Thinking about how everyone should be “mutant and proud” except Charles over there that is too passing to be a mutant but too weird to be a human and simultaneously his mutation, the way his brain is fucking wired, is too inconvenient for everyone around him mutant and human alike to accept

Charles Xavier they would never make me hate you. You and your autism telepathy

[tumble-tv]

i want to scrub all of my joints with steel wool and replace my cartilage with hot glue in hopes that maybe that will ease my pain for once in my life

[frosty-tian]

Day 2 of YoSante Week!

Quiet/Travels

(Featuring my version of them in a modern setting/AU. Main style inspiration is from @/thegnarlyghost on Twitter.)

Sometimes you simply need to retreat into the wild, away from the bustling city life.

Bonus doodle: How Yone looks with his hair down and clarifying the thing he’s wearing is a medical eyepatch (he’s blind in the right eye).

Link to week’s prompts.:

[townofcrosshollow]

One thing I knew but wasn't really conscious of before getting my cane is the sheer extent of prejudice against young people with disabilities.

Like, bus drivers are more likely to lower tye bus for a 60 year old with no visible disabilities than for me with my cane. Same for people standing up to let me sit down. In fact in the many months I've been using a cane nobody has ever stood to allow me to sit without being directly asked. People will actively push in front of me. When I'm walking on the sidewalk, people will not move aside to let me pass, as if I'm supposed to walk/put my cane down on the grass (that is not how canes work you can't do that). One time some older customers at work joked about buying a lot of vitamins and pills and how "that's what it's like when you get old," and I joked back about how I must be old then, and they starrted furiously explaining how I didn't understand because I was "young and healthy." Most people at least remark on my cane, and every single time it's under the assumption that it's a temporary thing, that it's because of some kind of minor injury, etc.

It's just kind of crazy.