#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

[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.

[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.

[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”

[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) 🫧

[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.

[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.

[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.:

[cane-goth]

“Get well soon!”

[larjb3]

What's interesting to me is that what are deemed as "invisible illnesses" are not actually "invisible" at all. To me, what makes them "invisible" is the fact that, in today's society, people are still so focused on ensuring that others around them feel comfortable, that they hide their own discomfort and what they need to do to simply survive and manage life.

"Invisible" illnesses aren't invisible at all - you're just choosing to not look because if you did look, you'd have to re-examine your life, values, and beliefs about others.

[rebellum]

I feel like... Perhaps... Arguing that transphobia is defined by murder and that anything other than murder doesn't even matter... May NOT be conducive to fighting for trans rights.

Like... people want the right to exist as they are. They want to have access to hrt and surgeries and prosthetics. People want access to clothes that fit them and reflect how they want to be seen. People want access to medical care (eg. Getting screened and treated for sex-based forms of cancer can be impossible if you have the "wrong" sex listed to receive those tests). People want to be respected and treated well. People want to not be sexually assaulted and beaten and abused. People want to have access to housing and jobs, and the protection to not lose those things for being trans. People want access to shelters for homeless people or survivors of domestic abuse. People want name changes.

Acting like all of those things don't matter because at least they weren't murderered by an individual (and instead die of suicide or state violence, or survive and suffer) isn't okay.

[ciderjacks]

the thing is whenever I see discourse on who can “really” use disabled accommodations coming from people with invisible disabilities I’m like. Ok. You guys need to realize being physically disabled does not automatically equal “I get access to all the cool disabled stuff now”, if you don’t actually need it, don’t fucking use it. It doesn’t matter if you’re physically disabled or not, if you don’t need the big bathroom or the special seats or whatever, then don’t use it bruh.

[crip-writing-shit]

you use my stars to construct your constellations

do my scars spell it out for you?

do my legs read;

brave   

or

weak?

strong

or cowardly?

does my story work for you? 

is it neat and well packaged and clean?

is it messy and gritty like all must-see tv?

what do you see in my calendar? 

the hour long commutes?

the doctor after doctor?

or the time I left open for you?