If there is a will there IS a way. U may not be able to do it the same way that non disabled people can, but you still can do it

once-a-polecat:

primarybufferpanel:

livebloggingmydescentintomadness:

I used to think that way too, before I got sick. I used to think that if I was just stubborn enough – and I’m really stubborn – then “where there’s a will there’s a way” and somehow I could do whatever I set my mind to.

But it’s simply a fact of reality that this isn’t true. It’s not being “negative” to acknowledge reality, to acknowledge that having a disability limits my abilities. That’s literally what it means. A Deaf person can’t hear, a blind person can’t see, a paralyzed person can’t walk, an autistic person can’t be allistic, and I can’t live the life of a healthy person. That’s not me giving up, that’s me acknowledging reality.

My illness prevents me from doing many of the things I want to do. I don’t “let” it stop me, it just stops me. If I tried to “find a way” to live like a healthy person, I would get so sick that I would collapse. Positive thoughts don’t make my pain and fatigue go away, it doesn’t allow me to think clearly or have the strength to leave the house more often. 

I know this is hard to accept, but there is nothing I can do to change this.

I do what I can to improve my health, I test my boundaries to see if I can do more than I think I can do, and I keep trying every single day. But a strong will can’t change a weak body. Wishing and wanting and trying can’t stop the bacteria that are ravaging and polluting my body, it can’t stop my immune system from attacking my organs, it can’t solve the mystery illnesses of fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue syndrome. If the disease kills me, it won’t be because I didn’t try hard enough.

Believe me, if wanting to be healthy made you healthy, I’d be the healthiest fucking person alive. If wanting to be abled made you abled, we would be abled. 

But a good attitude simply can’t fix a broken meat suit, and you healthy and abled people need to accept that too. 

You think you’re helping by telling me I can accomplish whatever I set my mind to, but you need to stop mindlessly pushing that ableist concept and realize that I don’t HAVE to be able to do whatever I set my mind to in order to be a worthwhile person. I don’t HAVE to “find a way” to be good enough. I AM good enough even though I can’t do the same things as healthy, abled people. 

I am disabled, and I am good enough.

This is important. You may think you’re being encouraging. But the other side of what you’re saying is ‘If you can’t do it, you must not be trying hard enough’.

Everybody’s limits are in different places. Part of why I have chronic pain issues is because I spent a decade believing that if only I pushed hard enough, my limits could be in the same places as those of the people who said encouraging things like that. It doesn’t work like that and usually it only makes things worse. 

#chronic illness #ableism #truth #you can find ways to do a lot of things#but you have to prioritize like a mofo #even if you can find a way to do a thing#you’re not going to be able to do it and five other things like a healthy person

I gotta agree with Sunnie’s tags here.  Yes, I may be able to “find a way” to do some things.  But I can’t “find a way” to do all the things an abled person would do, and certain things I’m never going to be able to do and still others will cause me further injury.  

Broken meat suit is broken.  That’s just the way it is.