People love to talk about whether or not disabled people can work
but if you can work just fine and your disability is destroying your ability to have a life outside of work (because work takes all your energy and more)
Dead silence. Nobody cares.
File this under, oh you can be active for 4 hours? You can work part-time. Um no, I have to get ready for work (30 min) get to work (15 min) get home from work (15 min) feed myself all day (30 min) maintain myself, my home and my life (15 min, yeah right), which leaves 15 min for work and absolutely nothing else.
This is so accurate, back after I’d relapsed I wanted to try and go in for one class at school so I could still stay in contact with the education system. I let slip during a meeting that I managed to drag myself to that I could manage about 4 hours of activity a week, which the teacher sprang on to mean I was being lazy for just trying to get to 1 hour class. Never matter that it was 30 minutes travel, that I would have to get washed and dressed, that I would probably still need to recover for 3 days from it.
Far too often abled people see the things they do easily as “non activities”, they don’t realise that for many disabled people these things have to be carefully planned and measured, and sometimes they simply can’t be done.
reblog bc the non activities thing seems really important words
I get X number of pain-free steps per day right now, which means that, for large conventions (like SDCC), I need to be in a mobility device. I had someone ask if I used up my steps every day before transferring to the scooter, and look surprised and a little horrified when I said “no, I save them so I can go to the bathroom unassisted.” Like, they had never considered that walking is involved in peeing.
!
Reblogging for the important point that the term “activity” may mean something very different and much broader for a disabled person with a chronic pain or fatigue related condition compared to its meaning for a non disabled person. If you’re tired enough, simply sitting up in a chair rather than lying in bed is an activity that drains energy otherwise usable for other things. A thing I knew from other people with pain and fatigue related conditions, but worth reinforcing for followers who didnt know or had forgotten.
Tag: understanding
Broken eggs aren’t the only things that can’t be put back together again. People break, too.
E.A. Binns (via onlinecounsellingcollege)
I think the most fundamental misunderstanding of depression comes from the fact people think we aren’t making enough “happy chemicals” which is why they think if we did things that produce these chemicals (excercise/nutrition etc) then we would be fixed.
But the way depression actually works is that our brains do produce happy chemicals – it just soaks them all up before we feel the benefit. So no matter how many more chemicals we get our brain to make, it will never be better, because that isn’t the problem. There is no amount of willpower that will be able force our internal organs to learn how to uptake more serotonin. “Happy pills” do not create more happy chemicals, they allow your brain to recognise what it is already producing.
Having depression isn’t a personality trait or a personal failure, it’s an illness that needs to be managed.
this. it’s like we’re unable to digest sugar, and everyone’s immediate reaction is to throw cookies at us. no that isn’t the problem you guys stop.
“What if they really hate me?” (They probably don’t hate you.)
I see a lot of posts on tumblr in this vein:
“I feel like everyone around me secretly hates me.”
“I can’t help feeling like I’m being humoured.”
“I know other people find me annoying even if they don’t say it.”
Sound familiar? Probably. Tumblr is a haven to all sorts of anxiety-burdened folks, and there’s a reasonable chance you’re one.
The above is a type of distorted thinking called Mind Reading. It’s an extremely common cognitive component of social anxiety.
It’s called mind reading because the essential nature of it is founded in the assumption you know what other people think and feel without concrete evidence that this is the case.
Logically, you can step back and tell yourself that maybe your friend is feeling a little unwell or has something on her mind she’s not ready to talk about yet, but we both know your anxiously vibrating brain has already decided that it’s because she views hanging out with you as a chore.
But here’s the thing: recognizing distorted thinking is the first step to changing it. Cognitive distortions aren’t totally unlike addictions in that way- once you truly recognize and accept that you have one, you can go about doing something about it.
This is a key component of Cognitive Behavioural Therapy.
It’s a form of therapy that bases itself around the principle of giving sufferers of mental illness the tools they need to treat the peripheral symptoms of their core anxiety. Medication can be great for treating that core, but it doesn’t actually alter the behaviours or thought processes that you’ve developed as a result of years spent trying to cope.
If you have a habit of trying to read minds, you’re probably already really good at constantly questioning yourself. Self-doubt is definitely a thing in anxiety sufferers, too.
So question yourself productively: when you find yourself deciding how someone else feels about you, ask yourself if you’re being fair to them. Do you like it when people make assumptions about you? (They probably make you anxious, don’t they? Especially when they’re positive assumptions, because you’re sure you’ll disappoint.)
Question yourself when it matters. You’re really good at that, right? It seems like such a little thing, but it makes a world of difference.
Don’t let the only time you trust your own judgement be when it’s saying terrible things about you. That’s the starting point you need to go from.
When your mind tells you,
“You know they’re just putting up with you because they’re nice, right?”
ask yourself,
“Yeah, but how do you know?”
Because you don’t really, do you?
22 People With Autism Answer the Question, ‘What’s It Like?’
Further, while a decrease in symptoms at puberty is common for boys, the opposite is true for girls, whose symptoms intensify as estrogen increases in their system, thus complicating the general perception that ADHD is resolved by puberty.
ADHD Is Different for Women, Marie Yagoda, http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2013/04/adhd-is-different-for-women/381158/
I’m gonna murder an estrogen.
(via actuallyadhd)
Well
(via ghostfiish)
Holding the Bowl 