❤️🩹 my take on a PMDD (premenstrual dysphoric disorder) flag 🧠
clipart .png credit
i had been waiting from months to a year to see someone design a flag for PMDD since i'm not very confident in my own ability, so i decided to go ahead and bite the bullet with an attempt. this is currently planned to just be a draft and may be subject to change with new updated versions in the future.
TW FOR MEDICAL TRAUMA/ABUSE: although this topic is not very widely discussed, or at least doesn't seem to be commonly present, online among the disabled community, my personal experiences with PMDD have made acknowledging its existence as well as its consequences quite necessary to me. as of the time of writing this, i am 19 years old, and when i was 15 exactly this time of year (as well as the first similar incident a couple months prior), i had an intense hyper-emotional episode the week before my period that was so bad i ended up getting institutionalized at a psych ward against my will and have never been the same since. for years now, i've been on a birth control pill that suppresses my cyclical hormones and prevents my period from occurring most of the time.
before getting into the stripes' meanings, there are two factors to explain behind my thought process:
dark teal is considered to be the awareness color for this disorder, although i went with a light aqua color because i think it looks better with the pink, and it's in the same family so i believe it still works.
pink is meant not to represent femininity necessarily since uterus-owners can come in many different gender expressions, but rather fit with the vibe of internal organs, especially since pink is closely related to red which is how warm blood appears (and is a key element of uterine cycles).
as for the stripe meanings, here is my proposal for each single word:
awareness ─ suffering from premenstrual dysphoric disorder is a very real thing that happens to müllerian individuals everywhere. according to the cleaveland clinic, which i am an active visiting patient of, about 10% of people with our reproductive body types who are at least of minimum pubescent age may be affected by it. although it does not tend to be a risk toward physical health, it is often a deadly threat to our mental state and well-being, which can lead to suicidal ideation.
strength ─ i consider this to be an invisible disability, with most of the symptoms taking place within our internal worlds and fighting a constant battle with negative thoughts + emotions. in addition to this, physical symptoms also arise and can cause severe discomfort before menstruation even begins. all of this happens within the confines of our own homes, and we tend to suffer through it alone. people who do not have PMDD probably fail to realize how strong we have to be in order to get through this difficult time repeatedly & endlessly, despite their well-intended efforts.
diversity ─ this is intended to have multiple meanings, and to include anything i may not have come up with so far. for one thing, there are plenty of different experiences to be had with this disorder, such as varying levels of cramping + sickness or depression + anxiety. on another note, not only do our bodies each work differently (some may also have endometriosis and/or PCOS, which are also intersex conditions, as a double-whammy), but many of us do not conform to societal ideas of gender despite all having these parts in common. there are infinite possibilities to mix & match with presentation & identity, which is not limited by biology.
flesh ─ although many factors are involved in this process, including hormones, PMDD centers around the uterus, which is an internal organ. the flesh represents the physical aspects of this experience, and how we must take great care of our bodies in order to ease how we feel.
pain ─ there is so much physical + mental pain that builds around this disorder, which deserves to be recognized, sympathized with, and treated. the deep pink (to me) somewhat resembles what ibuprofen & benadryl pills look like; painkillers & antihistamines respectively (i'm not sure if anyone else needs the latter, but my skin's condition gets really reactive when i go through my cycle).
anyone is free to reblog/use accordingly, although you may have to be mindful of permission/credit with the uterus imagery from the source!
tagging for reach (it may not fit your gimmick exactly, so feel free to ignore if you're uninterested, or reblog somewhere else!): @idwl @satyrradio @spaghettimakesflags @obnebulant-mogai @caeliangel @intervex @arco-pluris @beyond-mogai-pride-flags @radiomogai @themogaidragon @neopronouns @mad-pride @disabilitypride
the other day, my gf helped me by carring all my groceries up the stairs to my unit. and I felt so bad. here I am, sending my small gf up the stairs with stuff that knocks me out of commision for 2-3 days due to how much strain on my body carrying it causes. and then, she was fine. like, deadass. no pain. no needing to sit or grab the electric blanket. she was just fine???? and since then I've started realizing that the things that are hard for me are normal things for able bodied folk. and I'm like. OH. I AM *THAT* DISABLED.
its really crazy how growing up in a bad home will condition you to think that you're lazy instead of incapable of doing certain things. like, my parents knew i was disabled, they were there for my back surgry when I was 5. they watched me learn how to walk again after that surgery.
[Image ID: text that reads "weirdeye moth" within two long lines with balls on the ends.]
I made a chiari malformation flag for my partner, who has chiari malformation type 2. This is a general flag for anyone with chiari malformation.
[Image ID: a flag with seven horizontal stripes, the colors in order being jasmine purple, deep brown, firebrick, purplish red, royal fuchsia, heliotrope purple, white. End ID]
[Image ID: text that reads "weirdeye moth" within two long lines with balls on the ends.]
The fact that my mum doesn't believe that my tics can't be controlled with the power of "just don't tic" is really distressing but also what? Like why would I be doing this if I had the ability to just stop. I do not understand
asking the disabled community: what should i say or tell to my cardiologist? [LONG POST; SEEKING ADVICE]
reposting from my own reddit account on the r/POTS sub yesterday in order to achieve more reach!
hello to all. i hope you had a wonderful holiday season. my christmas day was less than perfect because i felt nauseous and had to spend a few hours lying down, but it wasn't the worst i've ever experienced to the point of absolute misery and it was worth the gifts i got that i'd been wanting (or at least i want to believe so).
i've discussed before how i constantly have a very high heart rate and it seems like that's been evermore present lately. it's not uncomfortable per se but it does drive me crazy, it's like being excited/anxious to the extreme except i'm neither, rather quite calm, but my physical response wouldn't lead you to believe that.
in addition to this, i had been complaining to my caretakers that i always (genuinely) feel like i'm on the verge of vomitting despite knowing i probably wouldn't, but i've come to realize that my vocabulary doesn't match what i'm trying to describe because i don't know how to explain it well ─ this could be due to neurodivergency, or just the fact that i am medically uneducated and only know as much info as your average person. it's not that i'm actually sick with something as much as that a number of internal factors are making my body act like it's sick and simply imitating symptoms, if that makes sense. it seems to me like this will be managable and/or hopefully preventable once i can put a name to what's going on, but the problem (and frankly whole point of this paragraph) is i'm having trouble finding those words. i believe, from my limited understanding, that the suspects are related to postural, orthostatic, and/or tachycardial origins, which should be self-explanatory.
now onto the main purpose of this post. i had a stress test done last monday, wherein my heart's response to increasing levels of walking on a treadmill was recorded, and that was also done while i was sitting down before even getting on. the nurse/assistant (or whomever i was being led by) said that my heartrate per minute was between the 90s-110s at first while resting, and then when i got on to start walking it got up to the high 120s. i had to stop halfway through the second level (4.5 minutes total) because i'm quite weak and unfit for intense exercise, in which i went to go sit back down and the numbers didn't really change until i was encouraged to take deep breaths; then it went back down to around 115. i was given a goldfish crackers snack and some apple juice to recover, and when i threw away my trash apparently i went back up to 120.
the results of the test were sent off to be read by my new cardiologist (whom i've only seen once directly so far) and today he said everything looks good... which does not add up, especially after the woman who was there with me (notably not a doctor or credible source of authority) remarked that it looked like POTS to her when i hadn't even brought it up initially. i'm thinking perhaps he [cardiologist] simply glanced over at it while on vacation without putting in much work, but either way this can't be right. maybe my heart, the organ itself, is healthy, but something is clearly going on that's making it work harder than usual and therefore affecting my quality of life in a negative way.
i've been seeking either a diagnosis of POTS or otherwise some form of answer & solution to my ailment, and i'm wondering if there's something i should say to get the ball rolling in my favor ─ if so, should there be a certain tone? should i use my mother as an advocate, since that's often necessary in order to convince a doctor to listen and carefully consider what the patient is suggesting? (i would also like to send these sources from a POTSie activist to him, the same person, that i had shared here before too.) if he insists that there is nothing abnormal, should i seek a second opinion, and if so are there any recommendations from this community that i can look into? i'm happy to be redirected anywhere that may help out, so thanks in advance!
“Du tust MAD Stolzflaggen? Könnten Sie Flaggen für autism, ADHD, C-PTSD, BPD, und tics machen? Könnten Sie auch NPD- und P-DID-Flaggen für meinen Freund anfertigen?” -anon
autism, ADHD, C-PTSD, BPD, und tics flagge für anon!
[autism, ADHD, C-PTSD, BPD, and tics flag for anon!]
