Disability Life - Tumblr Posts

You know what? I hate how most people think I'm 100% dependant on my mobility aids. Sure I hobble around with my cane and scuttle on my crutches, but I'm not helpless. They're so surprised when they find out I don't use them at home, or that they can hurt as bad as the disability itself, or that my dependence on them is a fluid thing and changes day by day. We have this idea of how disabled people should be— bound to their aids, miserable, defenseless. These ideas only helped me reject the idea of something wrong with me longer, because I didn't look like those people. Most of the time now, I use my aids when I don't need them just because I feel like I have to look "disabled enough" for people. We've built expectations for disabilities, which is funny, cause you couldn't have picked a more unpredictable thing.

I don't expect everyone to be educated, there are so much more pressing things to worry about, but when you have a friend or family member that's disabled, the least you can do is glance at a few resources online or ask them about it. I'm just so sick of family treating this like a big deal, or nurses holding on to me like a toddler still learning to walk when I need to get on a scale, or co-workers treating my cane laying around like a reverent item i will strike them down for disgracing. It's a piece of shitty metal y'all. I don't have a sliver of trust for that thing. Complaining about how cheaply made a lot of aids are to be priced expensive is a whole other post.

I'm just saying, if there was an immediate danger, you won't see me struggling to get away. I'll have already thrown my cane at them and ran. Yes, I have a disability, but I am not weak. You think these beefy arms are for show? You think this hunk of metal I lug around is soft? You think I made it to the end of the day fighting tooth and nail just to sit down and die? I'm fucking feral, fight me.

I'm very thankful for my main* friend group. They are all chronically ill/disabled and neurodivergent in different ways and we all have an understanding that if we cancel, it isn't personal.

We've all canceled on each other individually and as a group so much. We get it. It also kinda makes the times we ARE able to follow through, that much more special.

Can we please not shame chronically ill and disabled people for canceling plans at the last minute?

Trust me, we would love to “just do the thing”. Sometimes, we think we can do the thing until it’s time to do the thing, and then we realize that we can’t actually do the thing. And that’s OK.

I cannot for the life of me walk with my cane on the opposite side of the pain. I have to "House It" or I can't walk.

I see so many people saying to do the opposite and I just... can't? Idk how you do it. Cannot fathom. I've tried and tried and it was unbearable. But on the same side is so much more natural to me.

How many others do the same??