#inaccessibility tw

[lifeafterpsychiatry]

saw ur post about no disability being good enough for ableist society and like its so right. told my professor that i could have a brain tumor and she said that i could make up the midterm on monday. hope the test turns out negative!

wanted to drop the class and i got a condescending email from my disability coordinator that if i tried to drop 2 classes, i'd need a REAL reason. didn't listen to a fucking thing i said. like my fucking seizure was my fucking fault.

fuck professors. fuck fake "accommodations." fuck every single administrator at that pisshole of a school.

Yeah, the "you would never say Y to X" crowd truly don't get how insidious ableism is... I'm sorry anon and I hope you'll be okay! ❤️

[lifeafterpsychiatry]

opinion: it's weird how the responsibility is ALWAYS put on disabled people when it comes to accessibility. you can't watch this tiktok bc there are flashing lights and the op didn't put a warning? "maybe you shouldn't be on tiktok." you can't go to pride specifically because there has been no effort whatsoever made to make it accessible for you (whether it be a lack of masking or making it impossible to get around with a mobility aid or a million other things i'm sure i'm missing)? "maybe pride just isn't for you"

like i think there's a difference between "sometimes disabled people just Can't" (there are a lot of things that i as a disabled person flat out cannot do, and it sucks but it's something i'm learning to accept) and "when there's no effort made to make something accessible, it's actually disabled people being too disabled and maybe if they were less disabled this wouldn't be such an inconvenience for us to add accessibility to", if that makes sense

Yeah I hate the individualistic approach to disability where it's the disabled persons responsibility to "fix themselves" and adjust to an inaccessible society. It should be society's responsibility to become accessible, and it's so unfair that we instead make it the disabled persons responsibility to somehow "overcome their disability"

[lifeafterpsychiatry]

No hate to you, you seem like a nice person but as someone with ADHD, I think it really sucks that you're taking stimulants you don't need and that you're so chill and open about it. Where I live it's super fucking hard to access those medications even when you do need them because of people using it for the wrong reasons. A lot of people with ADHD are suffering from the stigma around stimulants because of this. You do what you want but if you're going to use life changing medications that you have no use for when people who actually need them are struggling to access them, you could at least be decent and not brag about it

I happen to think that open conversations about recreational drug use and harm reduction is more effective and less harmful than shaming and scaring people who do drugs into silence about it. So talking about recreational drug use here on this blog is a very conscious decision which I have thought about. There are tags you can filter and an unfollow button if you don't agree or just don't wish to see it, but while I get your frustration and while you do have a point, I do not agree that me doing stimulants recreationally is to blame for the ableism and inaccessibility people who need this medication face in the system, and I also don't think me being ashamed and quiet would help solve that issue in any relevant way

[lifeafterpsychiatry]

Yeah the reason it's so hard for people to get ADHD medication is because they have such a strong reputation for being used recreationally. Obviously in an ideal world it wouldn't be an issue. But it took me literally 2 years to be prescribed adhd medication because there was apparantly a "pandemic" (their words, it was precovid though) of people selling their medication. So even though you're not the one denying me the medication (which is where the blame lies) I think it's disingenuous to claim that your actions don't have an impact.

It's impossible to live in a way that's even close to being 100% ethical bc society is fucked and people need to be able to have fun. But personally I consider it in very poor taste to argue that by boasting about doing these stimulants you're somehow contributing to the destigmatization of drugs. If you believe your words/actions have the power to contribute to this goal, why do you refuse to accept that they also have the power to provide ammunition for those who seek to restrict access?

Basically I just don't think any individual drug user should be blamed for the systemic societal issues and laws surrounding drug use. I think that making the argument "your decisions about drug use is creating the stigma" is part of the problem. Yes, my words can be used as ammunition for people who want to blame individual people for systemic discrimination, but I think we need to move past the "you are ruining this for others with your own personal behavior" and settle on "society and criminalization is ruining this for everyone." And I think that me being pro drug use visibly and openly on this blog does more good than harm. You are free to disagree. But I don't think ADHD medication would be easier to access if I didn't post about drugs. And I think part of the issue is that we are still blaming individual drug users for the stigma surrounding drug use.

[lifeafterpsychiatry]

I used to be against self diagnosis until I like. Got experienced in the system and realised diagnosis with professionals is based on almost nothing and is an incredibly biased guessing game. Like people against self diagnosis seem to think that Diagnosis™️ is a set, strict, Official process when what it is is a doctor just half listening to you and going "Well based off my own personal experience of other patients and what I remember from the guidelines, it sounds like x". Maybe for some people, their diagnosis was incredibly complex and strict. I have about 6 diagnoses, none of them felt like anything more than a shrugging guess. Diagnosis is more or less one person's opinion of you, and that can be incredibly different depending on how long they're looking and what you feel on the day. And everyone's experience of mental illness is different, no 2 people are the same, so even then a diagnosis is trying to group together experiences that are already by definition, different. Idk if that makes sense but like. Once you realise doctors are overworked, tired, disinterested, and also biased, you realise a lot of the time they don't know That Much more than you.

Yeah. I think the idea that doctors are omniscient, infallible beings who know you better than you know yourself hurts FAR more disabled people than self diagnosis ever could. Cause like. A doctor is just a person. And people can't help making mistakes and having biases on occasion. Completely regardless of their education/job

[lifeafterpsychiatry]

excuse the bitching coming up. Man, I loooovee physically abled people soooo muuuccchhh. /sarcasm. All of that is sarcasm.

i have my cane at college with me and I walk into the library bathroom and some person with no cane/wheelchair/mobility aid/service dog/etc was in the disabled stall. Luckily it wasn’t a bad day so I could fit into one of the smaller stalls but like…both smaller abled stalls were open and clean. They certainly weren’t slow leaving the bathroom or stall once they heard me and my cane come a clicking in and settle down!

Idk, maybe I should give them the benefit of the doubt but like—I would prefer not to have my cane at risk of falling into the toilet, you know? The least they could do was not take the disabled stall! (And I am aware I’m not entitled to it, I’m just frustrated and probably a little hangry.)

That's beyond rude! If there was normal stalls freely available there's just no excuse whatsover to use the disabled stall if you're abled. I'm so sorry this happened, you definitely get to be pissed off!

[lifeafterpsychiatry]

I’m not against people bringing up with a professional that they think that they might have X illness for XYZ reasons and people should advocate for themselves at a doctor or mental health professional, but so many peoples self diagnosis amounts to nothing more than adding words to their Twitter bio and not actually seeking help.

I get that you’re trying to be accepting but self diagnosis ultimately does not help disabled or mentally ill people and actually hurts us in the end. People can’t always know that they’re struggling with a particular issue and saying that they do without a diagnosis does nothing to help themselves in receiving appropriate treatment and gives ableists more ways to deny our experiences as disabled and mentally ill people.

There’s already a lot of people online alone faking illnesses and using illnesses as a way to get followers/sympathy/speak for disabled people and supporting self diagnosis does nothing but enable them.

I just straight up do not agree with you pal. In a society where a professional diagnosis can be unaffordable and inaccessible for a wide variety of reasons, you really can't blame struggling people for trying to find and share knowledge and resources and community outside the medical system which isn't helping them properly. I mean it's not like you develop a mental or physical health issue AFTER you talk to a professional. You're there because you're ALREADY sick.

[lifeafterpsychiatry]

Sorry, vent. Bottom line I've waited 3/4 years for an autism diagnosis appointment and it just got cancelled 4 days beforehand, with no reason or warning given and I can't get through on the phone. My mental health team refuses to give me a diagnosis (suspected schizophrenia) until I've had the autism appointment to "rule it out" except I've been in the service for 7 years now and they still tell me its "not important" to have a diagnosis. I'm just so fucking tired, Kat. I'm so angry and so tired.

This is heartbreaking and I'm so sorry you have to go through this. It's unfair and unacceptable treatment from a system which claims to be built to help people, and you deserve so much better!