If you’re reading this, I hope something nice happens to you today 
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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.
I’m probably getting fired from my job for not being able to pick up on social queues. My boss has told me a few times that I can’t “blame everything on my autism” even though it literally affects my entire life. So that is cool. Idk what I’m gonna do. I might pull my 401k out and use that to live on until I figure something out. I want something that is fulfilling and turns out Amazon delivery driver isn’t all that fulfilling. Who fucking knew?
It’s so evil the way the employment world is geared towards only catering for neurotypical, healthy, able-bodied people, and yet if a neurodivergent, unwell or disabled person gets financial assistance or can’t hold down a job, they are treated as a burden and a loser, or their struggles are diminished. What your boss is doing however, sounds like illegal disability discrimination. Do you have a union?
I’m an Amazon delivery driver. We are very much at the bottom of the list for any sort of unionizing. The Teamsters are around but mostly in bigger cities and they’ve had at least a little success with unionizing some of the warehouses. They were in my city 2 years ago to bring a bit of awareness but since the city I live in is super fashy, it was mostly symbolic.
I’ve had 34 jobs in 25 years and I’ve been fired from the majority because of my disabilities. The main problem is I was diagnosed by a therapist and not a psychologist so it’s not exactly official on paper. So I can’t do anything legally against getting fired. If I do get fired and take my 401k out, I’m considering seeking out one of our trade unions because at least I will have those union protections going forward. But also I’m old as fuck at this point so it almost seems useless.
Are you able to get diagnosed by a psychologist? Why won’t a diagnosis from a therapist be acceptable?
I think in the States, it’s only taken seriously if it’s from a psychologist. I can’t afford a real diagnosis.
That sucks. It’s like they make getting real help unobtainable on purpose.
That sucks, comrade. Would you be able to collect unemployment if they did end up letting you go? It sucks but at least you’d have something coming in while you figure things out. Hope things work out in your favor. How’s your music stuff coming along?
They ended up not firing me, but I’m gonna look for something else anyway. Fuck them.
I hope you find something soon
and obligatory “FUCK Amazon”
I got the nice-strangest compliment today. My endo did an ultrasound to check out my organs (mostly liver and kidneys) and she looked at the screen at one point and told me with the biggest beaming smile that my liver “looks beautiful”. It’s apparently so healthy, it could be a textbook example of what a liver should look like. I don’t know how to handle the compliment, it’s like I can’t just tell people I have a pretty liver without getting a rightfully confused look, but it made me feel really good.
Never was so happy that I got sober 6 years ago and that my liver managed to regenerate completely. She’s a tough one, and I hope she’s happy about the compliment too.
What’s your secret to regeneration? I could do with a full body regeneration.
Honestly? I don’t know, especially with my bag of disabilities, my regeneration is generally speaking pretty slow, like, paper cuts take ages to heal. My liver stands out in that regard, so maybe if I ever get her to talk, I’ll let you know what she says
Maybe the rest of you is regenerating slowly because Hepate has been doing all the healing.
Huh, I also got sober 6 years ago, that’s a fun coincidence
A healthy liver is actually something to be damn proud of. The amount it has to put up with just because of pollution in our environment alone makes it surprising that anyone has a healthy one, so good job
Proud of you too, comrade
Congratulations to you too sweetheart, I’m proud of you
And I couldn’t agree more, our livers do overtime from the moment they start working and having them hold up and even excel is a bloody blessing, no two ways about it. Hope yours is doing just as well as mine!
That’s wonderful!
The liver is a tough one. It’s kind of messed up how much of our bullshit one organ deals with. And then there’s the spleen just fucking skating.
Its good to hear you’re livering the dream, and you lobe to see someone getting healthier.
She is tough, isn’t she. Big fan of how well she handled my poor life choices. Spleen sometimes seems more decorative than anything else lol
And thanks for the puns, I love 'em
Big ups to Hepasibah. She and you should celebrate your common sobriety if there is an anniversary coming up.
We do it every year. Thank you <3
Hope all my disabilibuddies are doing ok.
This disabilibuddy is doing good for a Monday! I hope you’re hanging in there <3
Just about, thank you.
I am 100% stealing this!! Hope you’re hanging in there as well, comrade
You too.
Hey so remember that I lodged a complaint about a professor who told everyone about medical information of mine? Well she investigated herself and found herself not guilty.
But also i got an A on a test so who can say if life is good or bad right now?!
Wow. Is there someone you can complain to about this?
Yes, the faculty. If I want to escalate from there we’re talking like a lawsuit, and hell no.
In the UK there’s the Office of the |Independent Adjudicator for Higher Education. Do you have someone like that you can complain to?
So the “Official” way to escalate this would be
Complaint (Done, rejected)
Request for an appeal board (Not done, would be appointed by the faculty from among the faculty. I.e. the people who just nixed it)
Request for the dean to look at it (She’s the one who says students can have a little cancer as a treat)
Technically you can then appeal to the ministry, but the fucking dean has to be the one to send it, and only if they want to.The only other way is a direct lawsuit of the person who did it. Which I am not gonna do.
So the recourse just looks very unpleasant and not worth it.
Edit: I wrote this twice because the site was being wonky, deleted the other one.
Have cancer as a treat?
Uhhh. I think i posted a bit about how the conditions on campus were so bad theh were linked to several instances of cancer?
Sounds like a class action lawsuit brewing.
Congrats on the A, at least! Sorry everything else with the school is so awful, I wish there were more options out there for you.
I’m at a family wedding rn and my family are simply gonna have to accept that I’m the autistic ADHD cousin who cannot keep up with the neurotypicals. And actually my uncle just told my aunt to leave me alone, I think he gets that I’m not on their level. That was actually really nice of him, he’s usually a very unseruous and sassy guy but he gets that I want to rest and not dance.
Sometimes understanding comes from the oddest places.
Unc gets some bonus points for that one, hopefully you made it through without any more annoyances
“Oh I work with someone who has the same conditions as you and they’re very successful”
Oh great, so it’s my fault I’m struggling with basic things haha. I mean, I know what they probably meant is to not give up hope that I can be successful, but man it made me feel like my struggles are personal failings.
What else can you do but try your best though?
that shit drives me nuts.
yea i could probably be successful if i was luckier and could have got a programming job when just about everyone could, but instead i graduated into a hyper competitive market where i will get rejected for asking for accommodation
success is all just luck, telling someone ‘i know someone like you but they got lucky’ isn’t very interesting
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I feel you. It can then become a struggling with struggling with those mixed feelings. Hopefully they were trying to be encouraging about it and not condescending. I’d like to believe most people would be accepting of “I did my best” and not be openly judgy about it. x-files I-Want-to-Believe.png
My subconscious “flirts” with nonhuman identities some of us autists have.
On a mental level, I kinda just… Exist! Don’t really have an internal self portrait of myself.
Also why is this turning me on?:
I do that too! I don’t know if I’m autistic, but my mental image is that of some eldritch something or other. I certainly don’t feel entirely human, and maybe that’s not a bad thing. If you don’t mind, could you share some of these thoughts or “flirtations”? If you don’t want to or whatever, that’s cool too.
(Yeah, I know, probably not the best place for dumping my random thoughts.)
This is interesting! I find it difficult to recognize myself in photos. Thought it was a trans thing, like I’m expecting to see a girl and there’s this male thing in the photo. I am trans, but this is also an interesting thought. Thank you for sharing!
Yeah as someone committed to the cause of trans emancipation, I initially thought it was dysphoria, but… Well, I mention all that on my tumblr.
Did throw me for a loop though!
OK but this is really interesting! I often get this uncanny realization of ‘oh right, that’s me’ in photos, and seeing my reflection is akin to familiarity but never ownership, if that makes sense.
I suspect it doesn’t happen in mirrors is because, due to mirrors being “real time”, the brain processes it in a… Well I guess it would be a tool based manner? It’s similar to seeing one’s own hands. It’s largely the “low level signal processing” buy
While with photos and video that relies on more abstract thinking.
I have a disabled friend, muscular dystrophy which requires them to use a wheelchair, and they’ve dealt with a problem that’s becoming awfully close to a pattern with Stubhub. They go on Stubhub, specifically select that they need wheelchair accessible seating for a concert. Stubhub returns tickets that are marked for wheelchair seating and they buy said tickets. But when the actual tickets show up, they’re for regular seating.
First time this happened, they didn’t find out until they got to the concert. Thankfully, the venue accommodated them and got them wheelchair seating. After that first time, they double checked the tickets they were e-mailed and lo and behold, regular seating again. That time, they complained directly to Stubhub who found actual wheelchair seating.
The problem seems to be that unscrupulous resellers are falsely labeling the tickets to get more sales, and Stubhub isn’t thoroughly vetting the tickets getting resold. So something to be mindful of when dealing with them and other event ticket resellers.
something to be mindful of when dealing with them and other event ticket resellers
Appreciate the heads up, it sucks that such a simple thing gets convoluted by these awful ticket brokers.
We seem to be having a heatwave in the UK. Which I hate, my high thyroxine dose makes me feel uncomfortably hot anyway. And I inflamed my achilles tendon again yesterday just lifting a shopping bag.
The heat being this bad so early is wild. Hope your tendon settles back down quickly
Thank you, but I think taking antibiotics for so long recently has really worsened all my tendons, my elbows and knees are really bad too. And of course the physio didn’t have time to deal with it at my recent appointment.
depressing systemic violence
Never read instagram comments. “Here, sign this petition to stop the Australian Labor Party from making cuts to the the already barely funded disabled support services that are notoriously difficult to access” and the comments are all cheering the cuts. I fucking hate people, there is fuck all humanity left in the world. People are dying without support and everyone cheers.
Kill all Internet commenters
Straight to the
with them.
Guess who threw out their back again
Uhhhh Uhhh Hint please?
It’s me, I dared to sit still for too long and then tried to stand up.
The sheer hubris
The NHS have released a warning list of medications that can make you extra-unwell during the heatwave. Guess what - NINE of the medications I am prescribed are on the list. Good thing I don’t actually take them all.
Love to all of you wonderful peopleLove right back
I’m not getting any responses to my mutual aid post this month, despite reposting and having it up for the past three days. I’m getting so worried about it. I’m still up to the eyeballs in debt, I’ve received only a fraction of my backpay which was immediately taken towards debt repayment, and although I’ve received one of my monthly payments, the majority goes on rent and the rest was eaten up by interest payments on debt. I have no idea what I’m going to do without food aid. I’m really panicking about it now.
If the government just accepted that I’m permanently disabled and didn’t keep making me go through reassessments this would not be happening. If I hadn’t had to live off credit during my appeal I wouldn’t have all this debt and interest to pay off. People literally starve to death and commit suicide en masse in the UK because of disability payments being wrongfully stopped:
https://www.bigissue.com/news/social-justice/dwp-work-pensions-committee-deaths-suicide-starvation/
I’m always worried that I’ll end up being one of them one day.
I’m so sorry, love. It is the end of the month, maybe a response will come through in the next couple of days.
In a really bad place. Weighing the pros and cons of continuing life. Think it might be a medication issue (as in, a new med might be causing these feelings) so hopefully it’ll get better soonish. Also really irritable, so I may not be on here as much because, while I appreciate the news and memes and such, it can be really disheartening. Not this mega, though. I love all y’all. But the site in general can get to be a bit much sometimes.
Hexbear can be a lot, you are right about that. If the new meds keep making you feel worse, is there a chance you can get back to the old ones without much hiccup? I hope the feelings pass, and that you’ll always find more pros than cons. Love you too sweetie
Yeah, I was able to contact my med provider, and she has me titrating off the new med. At our next appointment we’ll look at other options to replace it, hopefully.
Hope you find something.
Hope you’re doin better today comrade
Better maybe. Haven’t been actively wanting to die as much, but yeah. Only just started titrating, so maybe not big changes yet. I’m expecting to be feeling more better by the end of the week. Thank you for your concern, though!
