#the extreme ableism people feel comfortable airing for all to see

[mswyrr]

I've got to say the "he's a lost cause, he's too damaged, he's yicky, he's disgusting, I'm considering him dead in that fridge, he shouldn't date" stuff is so wild and sad to me. All of his issues are very treatable and manageable with treatment. I have family with issues that make his issues look like a walk in the park. His main problem is lack of self-awareness (and self-acceptance) of the fact that he has a chronic illness and taking active steps to manage it effectively IMO.

Once that switch flips for him he can manage this stuff really well - being in denial about it or thinking it should be "fixable" are both dangerous errors that can compromise or prevent that. But working through those? He could cope very well overall.

40 million people in the US have anxiety disorders! That's 12% of the population. Over 18% of people will be diagnosed with depression at some point in their lives. CPTSD is more rare, but still manageable. People are not living the life of a monk or "symbolically dead" because of these conditions. And they watch TV. Sometimes when people talk like this, it feels like they think people with similar issues are all locked away somewhere, not in fandom, not drawn to stories with good representation of these struggles.

It's specifically desperately sad when, instead of simply saying, "I don't like the ship," people choose to use real life problems and speak on them about how people with these problems shouldn't get to love or live their lives because of their illnesses. That's so not cool. It's entirely possible to just not vibe with the ship and move on.