Posts tagged “Disability”
Burdens/profit
Disabled people, sick people are often treated as and described as burdens. We’re so much work to take care of, our drugs are so expensive! Stefan Strecko has cystic fibrosis and can’t get his insurance company to pay for the drug he needs. A Halifax man who has battled lung infections, digestive issues and had […]
Migraine: a journal sample
May 19, 2018 I want to get up every day and feel okay or even well. To have energy and some expectation of getting things done. I don’t want to be disabled. I feel like life is passing me by, like I don’t do anything, like my life doesn’t matter. I say that I know […]
Ill living
Once, when I was much much younger, I told someone I trusted that every day I chose to live. I thought this person might understand something of what it was to live with chronic migraine. But they ordered a wellness check and our interactions turned achingly distant and coldly professional. I am reading the October […]
Botox is not a treatment for anxiety and depression and do not fucking tell me to meditate my migraine away
People act like I get migraines because I’m pissed off and sad and don’t exercise enough, but I actually am pissed off and sad and don’t exercise enough because I get too many fucking migraines. The framing of research on migraine co-morbidities kills me. People with migraine, especially chronic migraine, tend to have a bunch […]
Disabled bodies in the apocalypse
Disabled people don’t make it through the apocalypse. At least that’s the conventional wisdom of both speculative fiction and our own world: If the biomedical industrial complex collapses, so do all the people who rely on its products. Corporations need us to believe this, yes, but it’s hard to deny the truth of it. If […]
Why I can’t write a good personal essay | Tenure, She Wrote
I wrote about how my understanding of disability has shifted from internal to external and how that’s affected my ability to get support. A little smarts and hard work and luck can’t make my chronically ill body “productive.” Even if they did, it would only make it alright for me – and that’s not good […]
If you want disabled people to contribute you have to let them. If you want to disabled people to live, you have to support them.
Darwin was ill for much of his life, largely restricted to his home. His mysterious illness was managed with rest and strict routine with work but also a beloved walking path and intimate family time. I don’t think I’m the next Darwin, but I reached for his example when managing my own illness. I learned […]