whatshouldwecallchronicillness:
Tag: chronic illness
I
created this project due to the underwhelming acceptance and knowledge of ‘invisible
disabilities.’ The pill bottles that make up the walker all belong to either
myself or family members of mine who wanted to partake in this project as they
have invisible disabilities. I wished to bring awareness to the range of
disabilities that exist, and show that not all disabilities are viewed the same
nor are they all visible to outsiders. The
walker represents the fact that these medications, for some, are what allows individuals
to ‘get by’ from day to day. Just like someone with a broken bone would require
a cast to heal, some individuals require daily medication in order to survive
& be able to actively participate in life.
Some disabilities have a negative stigma attached to them, thus creating a feeling
of shame and embarrassment around them. Sadly, this is not uncommon when it comes
to mental illnesses, which is why this project was so important to me. I strive
towards contributing to the breakdown of negative stereotypes/stigmas/feelings
towards those who have a mental illness(es). The medication(s) that some individuals take daily are their ‘walker.’ It helps them stand on their own two feet & gives them their quality of life back.This is such a good way of making the “invisible” visible
@strangerdarkerbetter @candidlyautistic @owlsofstarlight @myautisticpov
If you’re healthy you probably don’t realize how demoralizing it is to spend all day in a hospital gown
But now a new collaboration is designing fashionable hospital gowns to encourage sick teens that they’re not “just a hospital patient.” See how they react when they try their new robes on.
Gifs: Starlight Canada
This is amazing! AMAZING. Chronic illness does its best to strip you of your dignity, your control, and your identity. This is a great example of how things that might seem trivial to a healthy person, can make all the difference in someones life.
Sometimes being chronically and mentally ill is like having a newborn baby that can’t tell you what’s wrong, you know you feel horrible and you can’t lie down and you can’t sit up but you don’t know why. You go down the list- are you hungry? thirsty? sleepy? too hot? depressed? just lazy? a terrible person? And then it dawns on you- you’re in horrible pain, all over. And it’s always been there in the background, it’s just worse right now than usual, for no apparent reason. And there’s nothing you can do about it.
I was thinking on the list of Steve’s illnesses when I was re-watching (for reference, because I do that a lot), and I couldn’t help noticing that when he’s still tiny Steve, you can hear the wheeze and sputter in his breathing, specifically sinus-related congestion. And it’s not just done by the breathing: Chris Evans manages to work it into the way he speaks, so it’s natural.
It’s such a little thing to incorporate into a character, but it’s there and it adds layers, driving home the point that Steve is genuinely not a healthy puppy before all this happens.
I really noticed it when he’s with Peggy in the car (“I think this is the longest conversation I’ve had with one”) and with Erskine (“it’s a little big”), just before the procedure.
And immediately after the procedure, the first thing he’s doing is taking big breaths of air, in a way he hasn’t been able to his whole life. It’s a very subtle thing, but I really like it.
You’re not unreliable – your health is.
shout out to all my chronically ill people who get shit for being late, for cancelling, because their health prevents them, and feel like jerks because of it. It’s not your fault. (via sickfacemcgee)
in the 40s they thought asthma was psychosomatic. that must have pissed bucky off to no end. i bet when he finds out that we now know it’s physical, he tracks down the doctor to the retirement home he lives at and says, “i fucking told you it wasn’t psychosomatic, you shitstain.” and the nurse comes over like “sir, i’m going to have to ask you to stop harassing my patient”
Yep, was talking about this with my partner the other day, and I thought that maybe the confusion came about when psychotherapy took off and they conflated panic attacks (trouble breathing, heart racing, dying feelings) with asthma (same, but with occasional actual dying).
So, yeah, when Steve is told ‘you’d be turned down on your asthma alone’, it’s not because they thought he literally had a chest condition that could kill him in the field, it’s because they thought he had a mental illness, akin to hysteria, and they didn’t want hysterics in their theatre of war.
I have a really exciting Spoonie Living announcement for y’all! When I started on my 6-month medical leave from work, one of my goals was to create a zine for new spoonies, to help them hit the ground running as they begin their chronic illness experience. I’m calling it Chronically Badass, and it’s finally done!
Here’s what I cover inside:
- Spoon theory
- Getting answers
- Working with doctors
- Work & school
- Friends & family
- Reactions
- Mental health
- Coping strategies
- Online communities
- Mobility
It’s free for download right here (although you’re welcome to donate if you like), so be sure to check it out!
Please also reblog and spread the word so others can find and benefit from this zine.
this zine sounds so awesome! i really wanna read it!
attn feralismyheart
Wicked excited about this zine!!! Also, such a great name for the zine!
Chronically ill Steve Rogers
(The images in this should be collapsed to begin with because, well, one of them is a plate of raw meat that Steve is presumably eating for breakfast. The last image is a gif. Contains discussion of illness, treatments, ableism and eugenics. I should point out…
The one thing I think I would argue differently would be to view a lot of those things as connected rather than separate. E.g, scarlet fever that developed into rheumatic fever, which then caused the heart problems (rather than heart problems PLUS scarlet fever and rheumatic fever separately). My grandfather was kept out of WWII for just that reason (heart problems resulting from scarlet fever/rheumatic fever) and it definitely contributed to his early death at the age of 62.
The other thing is that I don’t know about the expanded list- the only thing I ever paid close attention to was the doctor’s form in CA1, because I was writing a fic about it. Wherever it came from, I am side-eying the prop department because they’re kind of gilding the lily. Probably a product of not being used to how incredibly fragile life prior to antibiotics was (and so many of the other things they enable, like modern surgery).
Reblogging with this comment, because while the original meta is very good this comment is important because it highlights what tends to get overlooked about complex multiple medical conditions – they interact, they cascade, they cause other problems. So you have Steve taking asprin for one condition which causes/exacerbates ulcers, which then leads to the aenemia. You have the asthma leaving him open for respiratory infections. You have immune and vitamin deficiencies leaving him vulnerable to everything going around, and you have his body working double time trying to fix all the leaks. He’d be sick, and sicker than most, all the time. He’d be tired all the time. He’d be in pain, all the time. He’d have a poor appetite, and a temperamental gut as for what foods he could tolerate when he could eat. And that’s not even touching on the half of it.
knitting in the dark 