Ill, not chill

Sam • 25 • He/They • h(?)EDS, hip dysplasia, colonic dysmotility & idiopathic hypersomnia • I occasionally post my own drawings • sideblog to slowly-learning-languages

[body-of-ouches]

Two weeks ago I dislocated my ankle and snapped a few ligaments and hadn't been able to move three of my toes since... Tonight I realised they looked wonky as hell and popped them and guess what? They'd just been dislocated the whole time. I can move them again now. Small mercies 🙏

[dysautonomia]

People with EDS: Classic experience *nods along*

Others: 😱💀

[timelyreminder]

Did you remember to take your medication today?

Stay healthy folks!

If you have an inhaler, remember to use it.

And don’t forget to do any exercises or other activities recommended by your doctor. Those are important too.

Happy scrolling!

Art by nardacci-does-art

[Image description] Summary: a pill bottle - don’t forget your meds! A digital drawing, using flat, bright colors. It shows a plastic orange pill bottle with a white screw-on cap, standing upright. The cap is half off, with the contents of the bottle leaping out. The meds contained in this bottle are shaped like hearts and stars and they are colored pastel pink, yellow, and blue. Some have already spilt around the bottle, while some are still inside. The words on the bottle read, “Don’t forget your meds!” in pastel purple. [End image description]

[respectissexy]

One thing that has made me a much more well-adjusted person is a clip I once saw of Hank Green saying that anyone can be in amazing shape as long as being in amazing shape is one of their top three priorities.

(This is obviously a generalization that isn't true for everyone. But it is true for most people and I'm proceeding from there.)

This "top three priorities" framing has genuinely reduced my tendency toward jealousy and self-comparison a lot. Now when I feel envious of someone’s spotless, aesthetic home, I think to myself, “Having a spotless, aesthetic home is probably one of their top three priorities. It’s definitely not one of mine, so I shouldn’t expect my home to look like that.”

Or when I see an influencer with a body that takes a ton of work to maintain: “Maintaining that body is obviously one of her top three priorities, because it’s her livelihood. My livelihood is my brain, so I’m never going to prioritize my body like that.”

It also helps me to identify areas that I actually DO want to prioritize more. I realized in recent years that my envy for my friends who prioritized writing more than I did was NOT going away, so I started to prioritize writing more. (Not top three, but higher priority than it has been in the past.)

[bee-fox]

I think that it's really important for people to realize that being disabled is traumatic. genuinely. your body and brain feel like they are breaking down and wrong. you are in constant heavy stress from stuff like chronic pain. most disabled people i know have a somewhat regular emotional break down from the trauma of it all. and we are expected to just smile through it by society, to not be in the way, to not be an issue.

[chronicpaingirlie]

a hug for all the disabled people grieving dreams & hobbies & loves that they’ve lost due to their disability. for all the disabled people who imagined life so differently and who lost the chance for things to ever turn out the way they’d hoped.

we’ll find new dreams & new loves & new things to bring us joy even through the difficulty of living as a disabled person. but that doesn’t really make it easier deal with losing the rest. i hope that life will gentle to all of you & that you will find something you love that your disability won’t take from you. 🫂❤️‍🩹

[cane-goth]

Pain is hard to deal with. It’s not wrong or bad or selfish to feel angry or depressed or to grieve.

You’re not a bad person for having a lower tolerance for things that annoy and irritate you when your pain is flaring.

You’re not a bad person for having little to no libido when your pain is flaring.

You’re not a bad person for expressing you are in pain and discomfort, even if you’ve done it “too much” according to the mean voice in your head.

Be patient with yourself and give yourself the space to safely experience the mental toll chronic pain takes on you.

[saintpyxis]

Happy July, happy disability pride month

[externalmemorycomic]

(If you wanna read more comics, I’ve posted over 400(!!!!) of them on my patreon where you can read daily comics for just 3€ a month! I use my patreon income for bills and stuff and any contribution makes a really big difference. Check out the link in my pinned post if you want to join!)

[feral-critter]

Yes geologists! Doing the important work 💖

[rifle-wtf]

Credit to: The Sedgwick Museum of Earth Sciences

[shelbygraces]

cool flags cool flags cool flags!!! WITH ROCKS

[jaxyscreams]

[onlytwitterpics]

[aqueerkettleofish]

#i know people have started criticizing the#‘men are afraid of getting laughed at women are afraid of getting killed’#but this is real?

Oh, yes.

A few years ago I went to pick up a woman I met on OKCupid for a date, and a friend of hers was there. They kind of over-explained “Oh, she just showed up to say hi” and there was a vague nervousness in the air that even my autistic ass was picking up on. Her friend was playing conspicuously with her phone. I went “Ah, the safety. Need to get a picture?”

Dead silence for about a second and a half, then the friend took a picture, looked at my date, and said “Have fun” and walked out the door.

(I would ordinarily have been clueless, but I’d just been asked to be the safety the previous night.)

My advice to male-presenting folks: recognize that this not your problem. By which I mean, this sort of security check isn’t a problem for you. It doesn’t hurt you. You aren’t being insulted or disrespected. And if you treat it like what it is– a reasonable adaptation to an unreasonable situation– and just roll with it, your dates will be more comfortable, and you will have a better time as a result.

The same applies to phone calls mid-date. Let them answer the damn phone without drama.

They aren’t accusing you of being a dangerous person. The very fact that they are willing to go on a goddamn date with you means that they have extended a certain level of trust. But the fact remains that there isn’t really a way to distinguish between “a man who isn’t dangerous” and “a man who knows how to behave like he’s not dangerous.”

[kawuli]

there isn’t really a way to distinguish between “a man who isn’t dangerous” and “a man who knows how to behave like he’s not dangerous.”

[emohorseboy]

Calling my EDS a genetic disorder: medical, dull, depressing

Calling my EDS a family curse: whimsical, fun, suggests supernatural foul play

[anaphoraholic]

ok yeah i have a debilitating medical condition that causes chronic & generalized pain, mobility issues, autonomic nervous system dysfunction and frequent subluxations BUT. i can touch my thumb to my forearm so. a win is a win

[crazycatsiren]

Sending love to anyone and everyone who's going through body changes due to chronic illnesses.

[glowcowboy]

bodies should never ever hurt when i’m trying to sleep. like girl literally just turn off. that’s enough

[cannabiscomrade]

One of the most infuriating comments about tube feeding that I’ve gotten has been something to the effect of “I have massive respect for you- I could never see myself being tube fed/getting a feeding tube” and it’s like? Yes you fucking could.

You could if you had severe gastroparesis. You could if you went into gastric failure. You could if you had EDS with gastric involvement. You would if you had autoimmune gastric involvement. You would if you had intestinal dysmotility or failure. I could name hundreds of reasons that you very well could get a feeding tube.

I know this isn’t exclusive to my medical device/chronic illness/disability. But when something happens to you that causes you to rely on a medical device, you suddenly don’t see the perceived able-bodied willpower that you are supposed to have. You see it as a tool- in my case, you see it as life support.

As always, you should have the right to determine what you do with your own body. But I don’t think able-bodied people are seeing it as a right to refuse intervention, they’re seeing it as a lack of effort, as if my own perseverance could will my paralyzed stomach back into functionality.

It’s a backhanded compliment that is wielded by an able-bodied mindset that sees at least some aspects of chronic illness and a personal failure. I’ve had other people with gastroparesis say this to me, and it’s a product of their previously abled life.

[cannabiscomrade]

ID: tags from @enby-ralsei reading: #i know this is about physical disability #but i have heard the same thing with taking other medications #like my testosterone and depression meds #'i could never do that every day' #its like they are commending you for surviving in your body. and that they would rather not live than live in your body #its. annoying /end ID

You’re so right though

[actuallyapathy]

[cannabiscomrade]

ID: tags from @gayjacket reading: #oh your life SUCKS man! props for not just Giving. Up. thats what I would do if your life was my life. lol #<- what it sounds like /end ID

[spooniepositivity]

You are not a burden if your condition makes you dependent. You are not a burden if you cannot work. You are not a burden if others have to go out of their way to accommodate you.

Living with a disability is exhausting, and I'm proud of you, even if all you did today was stay alive.