rely on someone to meet basic needs and perform basic self-care tasks is okay and morally neutral, but can we talk about how hard it is? how vulnerable it makes you, how dependent it makes you, how tiring it is, how anxiety-producing it is, how it affects your dignity and self-esteem?
how much guilt it brings to constantly ask people to do something for you, especially something basic and presumably "simple." how little privacy you have left when you need someone to assist you with bathing, feeding (putting food from plate to mouth), dressing, moving, brushing your hair and teeth, and other tasks socially considered private and/or very basic.
even if your caretaker(s) are always nice and respectful and patient and do everything like you wish, it may still feel humiliating. and lots of caretakers are not like this, not even close.
and it's hard for you, and it's hard for caretakers, yes, even paid ones, but often our caretakers are not professional and paid workers. often, it's our loved ones. and it creates unique dynamics that are too taboo to discuss because society sees disabled lives, dependent lives as gross, and toxic positivity requires never to show complicated parts of our experiences even in disability rights activism.
depending on someone for surviving and/or daily living is normal, but it's a complicated experience with plenty of nuances, difficulties, problems, and heavy emotions.
I wanted to share some etiquette for simplifying something down for someone with a cognitive/intellectual disability
you are simplifying the information down, not sharing your opinion
if I ask for a news article to be simplified down and you tell me "they're doing fascist things" that's unhelpful. I want to know what they're doing not what you think about what they're doing.
you should be objective with it
if an article is talking about, say, a new proposed bill in Congress an example of an appropriate way to summarize would be:
"this is what the bill is proposing
this is how the article says it will affect people
this is what the author thinks about it"
and then you can start talking about your opinion
we have a right to form our own opinions about information. if the only thing you share is your opinion you're denying us that right. when simplifying language you are a translator. think of yourself as a translator.
hate when i say “i can’t do [thing] because of my autism” and hear (usually lower support needs) autistics say “well i’m forced to do [thing] so i have to” in response.
there will be autistics who never can do [thing] no matter how forced, no matter how punished, no matter how anything.
i can’t force myself to do [thing] i can’t do. not ever.
many autistics like me.
especially hate hearing autistics say “well if i didn’t do [thing] i would get abused” as if we autistics also didn’t get abused, except we still couldn’t do [thing].
you are dismissing higher support needs autistic who are or have been abused.
* [thing] here can be literally anything, doing chores, eye contact, speaking, socialising, get good grades in school etc.
in general when it comes to online safety and systems its best to leave what is and isnt "safe" to share up the system doing the sharing instead of trying to apply a blanket "this is ok" and "this is DANGEROUS" because plurality is wildly personal and you really cant be doing blanket statements 75% of the time
You know what the worst part of having a dissociative disorder is, for me personally?
The emotional amnesia.
Your entire life feels like something that you watched on TV, rather than something that you actually lived through.
You know that some of the most horrific things imaginable have happened to you, and you feel nothing about it. Sure, the memories disgust you on principle, but you don’t feel anything.
It makes you question if anything that you remember is real. If that actually happened, shouldn’t it feel significant? Shouldn’t you be sad, angry, hurt, something?
And to top it all off, nobody understands. Not even yourself.
Not "humans are inherently good" or "humans are inherently evil" but a secret third thing (humans are inherently social animals which means that we're very good at cooperating and being compassionate towards those we perceive as being part of our community but we're also very good at being tribal and violent towards those we perceive as threats to our community and everyone defines their community differently)
"Actually many disabled people do contribute to society" is not a great argument against eugenics, by the way.
DIVA OFF IF YOU WILL
If you disagree just block me :)
Just to talk and enjoy my stuff. I have two side blogs ;) Read my pinned post ! Humans are fascinating
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