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As always, we ask that in order to participate in the weekly megathread, one self-identifies as some form of disabled, which is broadly defined in the community sidebar:
“Disability” is an umbrella term which encompasses physical disabilities, emotional/psychiatric disabilities, neurodivergence, intellectual/developmental disabilities, sensory disabilities, invisible disabilities, and more. You do not have to have an official diagnosis to consider yourself disabled.
Mask up, love one another, and stay alive for one more week.
It’s great being able to get out and go to shops and things again, but nobody is wearing masks and multiple people literally cough and splutter all over me. They don’t even turn their heads away or cover their mouths. Just disgusting.
Oh and I have a lovely new thing to worry about. I’ve always heard that if i win my benefits case they will check the previous 6 months of my bank accounts. But now I’ve seen threads from disabled people on other sites saying they checked their accounts right from the start of the claim! The disability charity Scope told me it’s OK that some people put money in my paypal account because they said it’s a gift, but I’m not so sure, it might look suspicious, from multiple random people.
It’s infuriating that so many people think living on disability benefits is the easy choice. Constant assessments, having your payments stopped for no reason, having to beg for food, bank checks and constant worry you’ll be told you’ve done something wrong. Not to mention the endless threats from the government to make it more difficult to claim and to lower payments. What a way to live. All for the crime of getting too sick to work.
People have learned nothing from the pandemic, and kind of seemed to have regressed in caring at all about illness. It’s good to be able to get out of the house, though, even when it can cause anxiety with other people thrown into the mix.
I hope the payments aren’t used against you for your benefit appeal. It’s ludicrous to enforce such awful circumstances on the disabled for the sake of capital. What are you supposed to do when they don’t even provide you with the means to eat while this appeal process is in motion? Just ludicrous. I hope you get the benefits soon and this unnecessary stress is put behind you quickly.
Thanks. I think they just hope we die or kill ourselves. I don’t know why they don’t just legalise assisted suicide at this point.
The food bank gave me 30 parsnips. They gave me some nice stuff too. But they also gave me 30 parsnips. What do I do with 30 parsnips
Edit: I’m gonna make hasselback parsnips.
You’ve become one of those math word problems: Keld has 30 parsnips, if they give away half, eat a quarter, and share an eighth, how many will they have leftover?
Pickled parsnips are good!
You can grate them and add them to salad.
Good idea, I shall consider that if the hasselback parsnips are a dud.
New mega here
Neurotypicals: “You are autistic, this means you can sometimes say out-of-pocket, insensitive things because you cannot hope to know any better.”
Also neurotypicals: “Hey by the way! I will randomly make comments on your appearance, and how you remind me of this famous unattractive person you never asked for! I know you can’t help it, but I figured you need to be reminded of your insecurities. Just in case you forgot! Wait, why are you mad at me?”
Sure, and I’M the one who can’t understand social cues….and I’m taking this “advice” from people who never keep their unasked for opinions or commentary to themselves.
Neurotypical people use their judgy comments more strategically (although accidents happen for anyone). They say them when they are insecure, feel threatened or for some other reason want to make someone else feel bad about themselves. This is also why they get more offended when a neurodivergent person says something that the NT person perceives as judgy. The NT person assumes that the ND person intentionally wants them to feel bad because they project their own behavioural reasoning onto others.
To me, it always feels like what they’re actually saying is “Don’t tell the truth to someone, just be judgy when you talk about or to them.” I share your anger, it’s frustrating how insensitive some people are
Feels like a lot of NTs make themselves feel better by punching down this way. Almost as if by othering those around them they gain a sense of power and control.
Pet sitting this weekend has reminded me of how much love and affection animals can give. I wish it was feasible for everyone to adopt pets. My legs are numb from this cat in my lap and I couldn’t feel much more content at their warmth and little motor purr. I’d feel jealous, but I can’t provide for a pet like their owners and I’m just glad they’re so well loved and properly cared for. I’d spoil this fluff if I had them, too.
I want a pet so bad 😔 but I cant feasibly take care of one. The closest I can get is feeding feral pigeons.
The middle ground is having friends and family with pets. Also this way you get to spoil it without having to deal with the consequences
Yeah, same here. I can do it for a few days but it burns me out on top of being expensive. I love feeding the crows and songbirds in the neighborhood when I can. Wildlife is so cool to just sit and watch sometimes.
Yeah if it wasn’t for my landlady’s dog I wouldn’t even carry on.
Animals are such treasures, I’m glad landlady’s dog is good company
I am trying to get back into making music, got around to uploading this little dungeon synth track i did a little while back. I’ve been trying to get back into things i was passionate about before life got considerably worse and ive been tinkering with music and trying to get my Mandarin back up to fluent levels. I gotta Keep pushing forward<3 Vile Humors - Miasma
This is awesome, ty for sharing! Very dungeon boss vibes, I had fun listening to it. I hope you continue to keep making music, you have a talent for it <3
Thank you, i really appreciate it<3
I had no idea Baroque Dungeon Synth was a thing in music, so I was surprised to listen to your little piece of art! I enjoyed it, so thank you for sharing. I also hope you can find the time (and passion) to continue pursuing this hobby of yours. It was fun listening to something that was completely new to me
Thank you, I had heard one track like it before and i liked the slightly more energetic feel it had over a lot of dungeon synth i had heard before.
I just posted a question that is partly about my disabilities and mostly about what I’m proud of. Just watched Frankenstein 2025 last night and it has me rethinking what I can be proud of.
I just watched it too! Visually very cool. I think I’m proud of how far I’ve come as a person, and being able to find a bit of joy in each day. It’s honestly inspiring to me to meet and talk to people of all walks of life and abilities. Everyone has such interesting and varied experiences, I wish I could talk to and meet more people, if only to hear their thoughts and stories.
Appreciate you sharing, sorry I missed the original post.
Guillermo del Toro is amazing and I aim to watch every last movie of his. Finding joy can be hard with certain disabilities and mental states, so congrats. I love people even though I’m socially anxious, I hope for the same in knowing people and their wisdom, experiences, and how they deal with and enjoy life.
You’ve got nothing to feel sorry about.
Had my vitamin D injection just now. Now I’m on tenterhooks to see if it’s going to make me ill like the tablets do.
do you know how much vitamin d was in the injection? I am always very low on vitamin d and i wonder if that is something i could persue
200,000 iu. It’s meant to last from anywhere from 3 months to a year depending on your level of deficiency.
Interesting, thank you. I am going to check and see if my doctor knows how i can get that done before the cold dark season really kicks in lol
I think you can just buy them online too.
I didn’t know vitamin D injections existed. Does this mean people at the north and south pole, and other dim snowy places, don’t have to bathe like reptiles under a light for hours each day?
I guess not.
I’m keeping my fingers crossed you don’t get any side effects
Thank you.
Apparently it can take weeks or months to notice anything from the injectable form so I guess I’ll be worrying about it for a while.I’m going to stay optimistic and say I believe that you will get better
Thank you.
Hopefully it helps and the side effects aren’t noticeable. I’d say it’s normal to be anxious about it after the reactions you had to the pill form. Fingers crossed this will alleviate some of the other things going on.
Thank you.
Now having permission from Gingerbrat to post my whining. Please ignore this if you don’t want to hear about my work woes.
I was called a slur by a person visiting a patient after I brought them coffee from the staff lounge. They were frustrated and lashed out and I get that, and I need thicker skin, but I’m still offended given that I had literally no involvement with their treatment. I just saw people sitting around and asked who wanted coffee or tea and smuggled it out and my reward was slurs thrown my way.
It sucks to have someone take out their emotional stuff on you, but that doesn’t excuse using a slur. It shouldn’t have happened and it’s perfectly okay to feel upset at the interaction. You were just trying to help, and that should be appreciated.
I love that I’m getting the “Mom said I could” treatment for this comment
This is really rude, but sadly not atypical. I’m sorry that instead of a thank you, you got insulted. You deserve better, especially since you were being kind to them
Now if people don’t like the post it’s your fault instead
I’ve been subject to some abuse before, but always because I was directly involved in care. Getting it for doing someone a favor was new.
You are such a smart cookie, I’m impressed!
Definitely, that’s just weird
i think anyone who yells at me ever should explode into a billion pieces
Why do people keep yelling at you, don’t they know it’s a guaranteed explosive end for them?
I’m sorry you got yelled at, sweetie
If anything that’s too mild.
Eternal explosions on the ones who yell at you
Edit: Whining about work is probably a bit insensitive when some here can’t find any.
No, it is not insensitive. Work is stressful and can be very unpleasant, so it’s just as legitimate as complaining about never finding work (which is also immensely stressful and unpleasant).
COVID has made a real doomer out of me. As usual, the people taking it seriously now will be the ones to pick up the mess caused by the hubris of those who think they’re built different, your “comrades” included. Silence = death.
It’s almost impossible to stay optimistic when you look at the state of covid treatment - generally speaking. It’s becoming harder and harder to get new vaccination shots where I live, masks are getting more expensive, and even if you manage to get a mask and a shot, people will treat you like you’re infectious when you walk into any place with a mask on. It’s disturbing how quickly the covid denial swept through all branches of society.
Please don’t give up hope yet, though I know it’s hard, I’m sure there’s some sort of silver lining at the end of the tunnel
I feel compelled to push back wherever I see complacency about all of this madness, but I can feel it taking its toll. It was Sankara who said we don’t get the luxury of being tired of explaining…but I am very, very tired.
Maybe we shouldn’t treat tiredness as a luxury. I mean, I get what Sankara was saying, but it’s not like you can stay up on your feet forever. We all need breaks, so becoming and being tired is a foregone conclusion. Maybe what we need is shifts in explaining. You can’t do it all on your own, you know?
I hope you know you’re not alone and that others out here care about your well being. Much love to all my disabled comrades <3
Eating yummy broccoli. No one at the food bank wanted their broccoli so I got 7 heads of broccoli. People at the food bank are such picky eaters I swear.
Broccoli is so good!!
It is so good, and there’s basically no way to do it wrong. You can bake it, you can sauté it, you can steam it, you can boil it, it’s all gonna come out nice and delicious.
You can even make soup out of it, and it tastes so delicious
Nice haul, broccoli is probably 30% of my diet and makes any meal better
I love broccoli but more than a handful and I get gastric disturbances.
Oh no :(
A handful is usually all you need! I don’t normally eat broccoli raw, but when I do I definitely notice a difference. Same with cauliflower; but when I cook it first it doesn’t mess with my stomach as much. I think it removes some of the things that can cause distress, if I’m remembering correctly. A lot of that depends on the individual, though. Sometimes our bodies just don’t like what we try to feed them, especially when meds and illnesses come into play.
The problem is I’ve been diagnosed with a folate deficiency and the folic acid supplements aggravate my bladder terribly. I thought I would get extra folate by eating extra veg but the gastric symptoms it gives me are too bad. My tingling and pins and needles are getting worse and I’m really scared about it because it seems there’s nothing i can do, and the GP is so useless, she just tells me to take the folic acid anyway.
Oh I wasn’t suggesting that you should try it that way, I guess I was just over-sharing, sorry. I’m sorry the pins and needles are getting worse and that your GP isn’t helping at all. You’d think they’d have a shot or something they could give you that wouldn’t mess with your stomach. I hope you can get some proper care soon.
I’m resigned to the fact that I’ll never get proper care.
Could it be that the folate is doing something to the fibroids? And out of curiosity (don’t answer if you don’t want to share) what type of disturbances do you experience?
I’ve had IBS for ages, although it was quite recent that I realised that a lot of vegetables were aggravating it. Wind and loose stools being the main symptoms of that, and caused by many different veggies. And the veggies that don’t trigger the IBS trigger migraines and bladder irritation. The only ones I can eat without any bother are potatoes, carrots and spinach, although apparently spinach can cause kidney stones so I’m hesitant to eat it more than twice a week. It’s just an awful way to live, I would love to be vegan and eat lots of vegetables, I wanted to do Dr Joel Fuhrman’s Eat to Live diet but it’s out of the question.
I don’t think the folate is doing anything to the fibroids, according to google, unmetabolised folic acid gets into your bladder and irritates it, so that’s probably the issue with that.
This is so horrible, especially with the veggies that you want to eat
Well except desserts.
