Because almost nobody knows about this.
This was just something quick I did because it came to my attention that basically nobody knew about this. Living with disabilities makes you feel invisible, because either you figure out coping mechanisms that make it APPEAR like you're an able-bodied person, or you're forced to accept the fact you're always going to be reliant on assistance that people keep arguing that you don't deserve because you saw a story one time about how a disabled person is able to live a 'normal' life.
The thing that they never talk about however, is just how much effort it takes to 'appear' normal.
I keep our house in order. I keep our house looking like the people who live here actually give a damn about how it looks. Our house looks 'normal' aside from the old ramp out front that was there to help Brim's grandma to her many doctor appointments. You wouldn't think that I have HEAVY limitations on what I can do. That's because I've learned to cope with my limits. I've learned how to live around them.
That doesn't mean I'm able bodied, however, because what the vast majority of people who ARE able bodied don't understand is how much more EFFORT it takes. Mowing the lawn is an inconvenient chore for most people. They'll grumble and gripe through it, but it won't take the effort of an entire day of hard labor to do.
It does for me.
By the time I'm finished mowing, my back and hips are throbbing, I'm sweating from pushing through the pain, and I don't have a CHOICE about resting for a while afterwards because I have a maximum amount of time I can stay standing. 2 hours. Daily. That's it. If I try and stand for longer, I run the risk of herniating my discs again and being rendered completely immobile for a week.
"Well what about all those runs you take with Rocky?"
They hurt. Every run hurts. The reason I keep doing them goes beyond just making the big idiot happy and getting rid of his excess energy, it's because if I DON'T, if I allow myself to 'be lazy', I will hasten the degeneration of my discs. I need to keep my vertebrae lubricated and mobile. If I don't stay active, my discs will seize and I won't be able to move much at ALL.
I can't work like other artists can. I can't pull an all-nighter slaving away on a comic to meet a deadline because I will hurt myself. I can only work in 2-4 hour chunks throughout the day. I have to plan my days around what my back will LET me do, all so I can at least finish SOME work in good time.
There is no way I can compete out there with healthy people with no real physical problems. I just can't produce like they can, and to put the kind of pain that comes from trying to 'push through adversity' into perspective, former UFC welterweight champion Matt Serra suffered a random disc herniation during training and it knocked him out of commission for a month, so the kind of pain I've endured since I was 22 took not just a professional MMA fighter down, it took down a CHAMPION, so it's not just something that goes away with a couple of Aspirin and a backrub like so many people assume it is.
I'm not telling you all this because I want sympathy or pity, because both are worthless to me.
That's not what I posted this picture about.
This is to bring awareness about the kind of life disabled people have to go through. It's to bring UNDERSTANDING of the extra challenges disabled people face so we're NOT just these invisible people that get ignored or neglected because we make you feel uncomfortable or guilty that you don't have it as hard as we do. We're just trying to get through life like you are, but the level of effort it takes is so much greater. Life isn't easy for ANYONE, but for disabled people, it can seem downright impossible when able bodied people either dismiss the disabled as unable to contribute or see a disabled person maintaining a 'normal' life and say, "Hey, THAT person is doing okay, they're not THAT handicapped!" and remain ignorant of just how much more effort that 'normal' life takes.
Everyone is trying to get by. I'm not asking you to donate to a charity that benefits disabled people... but please do recognize the struggles and challenges disabled people face. Think for a moment about what you would do if you lived with the restrictions a disabled person does, what you'd do if you didn't have your legs or an arm or sight or hearing or lived every day in searing pain. Recognize their worth as a person despite their handicap, because no one wants to be thought of as just a burden.
Fun art soon, folks.
The thing that they never talk about however, is just how much effort it takes to 'appear' normal.
I keep our house in order. I keep our house looking like the people who live here actually give a damn about how it looks. Our house looks 'normal' aside from the old ramp out front that was there to help Brim's grandma to her many doctor appointments. You wouldn't think that I have HEAVY limitations on what I can do. That's because I've learned to cope with my limits. I've learned how to live around them.
That doesn't mean I'm able bodied, however, because what the vast majority of people who ARE able bodied don't understand is how much more EFFORT it takes. Mowing the lawn is an inconvenient chore for most people. They'll grumble and gripe through it, but it won't take the effort of an entire day of hard labor to do.
It does for me.
By the time I'm finished mowing, my back and hips are throbbing, I'm sweating from pushing through the pain, and I don't have a CHOICE about resting for a while afterwards because I have a maximum amount of time I can stay standing. 2 hours. Daily. That's it. If I try and stand for longer, I run the risk of herniating my discs again and being rendered completely immobile for a week.
"Well what about all those runs you take with Rocky?"
They hurt. Every run hurts. The reason I keep doing them goes beyond just making the big idiot happy and getting rid of his excess energy, it's because if I DON'T, if I allow myself to 'be lazy', I will hasten the degeneration of my discs. I need to keep my vertebrae lubricated and mobile. If I don't stay active, my discs will seize and I won't be able to move much at ALL.
I can't work like other artists can. I can't pull an all-nighter slaving away on a comic to meet a deadline because I will hurt myself. I can only work in 2-4 hour chunks throughout the day. I have to plan my days around what my back will LET me do, all so I can at least finish SOME work in good time.
There is no way I can compete out there with healthy people with no real physical problems. I just can't produce like they can, and to put the kind of pain that comes from trying to 'push through adversity' into perspective, former UFC welterweight champion Matt Serra suffered a random disc herniation during training and it knocked him out of commission for a month, so the kind of pain I've endured since I was 22 took not just a professional MMA fighter down, it took down a CHAMPION, so it's not just something that goes away with a couple of Aspirin and a backrub like so many people assume it is.
I'm not telling you all this because I want sympathy or pity, because both are worthless to me.
That's not what I posted this picture about.
This is to bring awareness about the kind of life disabled people have to go through. It's to bring UNDERSTANDING of the extra challenges disabled people face so we're NOT just these invisible people that get ignored or neglected because we make you feel uncomfortable or guilty that you don't have it as hard as we do. We're just trying to get through life like you are, but the level of effort it takes is so much greater. Life isn't easy for ANYONE, but for disabled people, it can seem downright impossible when able bodied people either dismiss the disabled as unable to contribute or see a disabled person maintaining a 'normal' life and say, "Hey, THAT person is doing okay, they're not THAT handicapped!" and remain ignorant of just how much more effort that 'normal' life takes.
Everyone is trying to get by. I'm not asking you to donate to a charity that benefits disabled people... but please do recognize the struggles and challenges disabled people face. Think for a moment about what you would do if you lived with the restrictions a disabled person does, what you'd do if you didn't have your legs or an arm or sight or hearing or lived every day in searing pain. Recognize their worth as a person despite their handicap, because no one wants to be thought of as just a burden.
Fun art soon, folks.
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Also don't like it when people EXPECT you to just suck it up or they give the ass comment "pain builds character" or "get over it" etc etc.
The one I hate? "Pain is weakness leaving the body." Hell, I must be one of the strongest men on earth.
If anybody ever said that to me, I'd respond with, "Then, may you NEVER experience what I'm going through because you'd likely be crawling on the floor and crying begging the weakness to just get gone."
In the words of Coach : "No pain, no gain. I must be about to gain some serious shit!"
yeah, that's when you know that the worst pain THEY'VE ever experienced is maybe a pulled muscle once or twice in their life, not nerve pain that's being activated because your bones are crushing the nerves responsible for letting your legs move.
Good for you -- and thank you for this!
For the past couple years I've been living with degeneration of my own disks (one is ruptured in two places) and I hardly have any cartilage in my knees -- I'm walking bone-on-bone.
Seems I have issues with connective tissues.
When I go to the store I'm using the power carts if they're available. I had one woman challenge me about it -- at 64, I'm older than she is and I'm struggling around on a cane. There were two other carts charging when I came in. It's like I was preventing her from using one.
Hope you have days with more sun and smiles and fewer canes and pains.
For the past couple years I've been living with degeneration of my own disks (one is ruptured in two places) and I hardly have any cartilage in my knees -- I'm walking bone-on-bone.
Seems I have issues with connective tissues.
When I go to the store I'm using the power carts if they're available. I had one woman challenge me about it -- at 64, I'm older than she is and I'm struggling around on a cane. There were two other carts charging when I came in. It's like I was preventing her from using one.
Hope you have days with more sun and smiles and fewer canes and pains.
I can relate. My head and sleep cycle has been pretty messed up for the last six years. Mostly because my last job had an hour long commute back and forth and had to wake up at 5:30 (4:30 thanks to COVID) to get ready and one of my three bosses was the worst person I had to put up with. Then there’s my stepdad who hasn’t found a job in three years and does nothing but smoke pot in his office, ignore the dishes and makes me do them, doesn’t even bother tying up bags of trash and putting new bags in the barrel, hasn’t found a new car after my mom got into an accident with his last car (survived miraculously), or when he tried to move me out of my room into the smaller guest room over a pot left in the sink (ONE POT. Nothing else.), or when he left a plastic bag with a dead mouse inside in my waste basket (no, really. He did that.), or when he’ll unplug my mini fridge and I have perishables inside…stop me anytime.
(I should really move out.)
(I should really move out.)
As a disabled person myself, I do NOT speak for every disabled person, but would you kindly STOP making months out of every little thing!
Now when is talk like a pirate day? Right, don't care.
Now when is talk like a pirate day? Right, don't care.
I totally agree, while I appreciate the attention we get it kind of like "OK let's support this for a month" month ends people stop, look at pride as an example.
Well spoken, KJ. Gives us a bit of insight into such lives and makes me realize how difficult it can be for you.
Well spoken and it can be a challenge both physical and mental disabilities. Everyone has their own struggles and demons, but for those who have disabilities it becomes even more and harder. Although we can learn to cope and overcome them, the amount of effort and hard work can be taxing at times. It can be such a burden and at times one of the hardest things one will have to do. Thankfully in these modern times we have a lot more options and help. True, sometimes it doesn't seem great or as much. But back then, there was little to nothing that could have helped. Even so we must all do the best we can.
Thank you for sharing this. I honestly had no idea. May I offer admiration that you are persevering and refusing to cave?
Well sure but frankly, I wouldn't call where I am 'persevering' considering we're really not able to make ends meet on our own yet.
You're not giving up; that's the very definition of persevering. Maybe all you can manage right now is a holding action, but you're doing it. I'm fortunate that I've not had a debilitating chronic condition of some kind affect me (so far; knock on wood). But the track record for avoiding such in my family isn't good. If I do, I hope I'll be able to muster as much Just Don't Quit as you have. Sorry for the delay in responding.
Everyone suddenly gains a PhD in physiology, cellular biology and genetics when they meet someone who's got a chronic medical condition.
Ugh, yes. Experienced that a few times yourself, I see!
I had read that in animal studies, the first and second generation after a starvation event will put on excess weight like mad, in a genetic fix to allow for survival. Great Depression and WWII generation went through a starvation event.
1950s-1960s nuclear tests in the USA contaminated farmlands, with it being concentrated in dairy products. Hence thyroid cancer and hypothyroidism, which were very rare in the past, are all too common among the 1950s-60s children.
1950s-1960s nuclear tests in the USA contaminated farmlands, with it being concentrated in dairy products. Hence thyroid cancer and hypothyroidism, which were very rare in the past, are all too common among the 1950s-60s children.
There is not much I can share about it but I am one of those people who has OCD and having to take care of many things in the place where I live, even sometimes being too stressful and overwhelming. Furthermore, when one has to help one's own mother, who has psychological problems combined with the fact that she has a bad temper, she makes things even more difficult. Don't get me wrong, I don't hate my mother or anything like that, she is still a good mother after all, and she understands what my limits are, so she puts in some effort from time to time to do my chores they are not so heavy for me, which I appreciate a lot by the way. Basically, it is all I have to say, my condition makes things more difficult but I do not plan to give up on what I do since that would not be correct, even more so considering that my mother needs my help regardless of what she does more complicated things for me from time to time. Thank you for her attention and sorry for the inconvenience.
This really put a smile on mine and everyone's face.
If your have a Disability. It dose not mean your helpless, Your special and you make every wonderiful by just being you.
If your have a Disability. It dose not mean your helpless, Your special and you make every wonderiful by just being you.
Degenerative disc disease that advanced to severe spinal stenosis. It's so bad that eventually I WILL become paralyzed from the waist down unless I get my spine fused, which my neurologist wants to delay as long as possible because spinal fusion is typically only done on much older, inactive people because it typically only HAPPENS to much older people, but I had it in my early 20's. Just lost the genetic lottery.
Spinal fusion is a last resort because after I get my spine fused where my discs have basically disappeared, it will put extra stress on the remaining discs in my back and lead to more herniations and they'll just have to move up my spine, fusing vertebrae until my spine is totally inflexible.
Spinal fusion is a last resort because after I get my spine fused where my discs have basically disappeared, it will put extra stress on the remaining discs in my back and lead to more herniations and they'll just have to move up my spine, fusing vertebrae until my spine is totally inflexible.
Anyway, going through life with this condition must be a very inspiring story.
I wouldn't call my story inspiring. I'm not exactly doing well, I'm struggling to find a decent following still and my comics haven't gotten off the ground. Maybe when I get 15k followers, I can say I've managed to surpass my disability, but for now, every day is still a tooth and nail fight.
Welcome to my world since my return from Afghanistan, but you learn to deal with the issues for the most part. The injuries that impacted my ability to draw heavily completely changed my life forever leaving me disabled physically and mentally. Can not go back to work or enjoying the things I used to do I have gotten better with lots of therapy and highly suggest others do so. As for your back have you seen a good massage therapist I see one it made a major change in my life can put my own shirts on again without needing someone to help. As for the spoiled demanding types, it gets done when it gets done. I watch your very productive there are tons of able-bodied artists and fail to produce even a 1/4 of the content you're getting done. Real-life comes fo first they can't deal with they can go piss in the wind. They wanna give shitty comments about it, block them and drive on don't even give them the time of day they don't deserve it just like plenty of other artists for them to abuse their far more clients who love to get their stuff taken care of. The old saying price subject to change with attitude is very true to add that to your commission FAQ ;)
Massage therapy won't do shit for me. My problem is skeletal, not muscular. Spinal stenosis is when the nerves that run through your spine get squeezed because the gap between the vertebrae has disappeared due to disc degeneration. The only way to treat it is spinal fusion, which my neurologist doesn't want to do unless it's completely necessary because it'll start a domino effect up my spine.
Sadly, the only treatments available for this condition are meant for old people, because 90% of people who get spinal stenosis are over the age of 60. I've had it since I was 22.
Sadly, the only treatments available for this condition are meant for old people, because 90% of people who get spinal stenosis are over the age of 60. I've had it since I was 22.
I hope you the best, as a trans female and as an autistic and disabled person with two underlying skelatal back disorders I know how hard it is and when people look at you like your incapable of everyday tasks or treat you like you arent normal or just discriminate against you it really hurts but fight for your right to be just like everyone else and be you and dont let anyone else tell you that you arent normal or that you are less than anyone else, that is my motto
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