Here's some of the shit takes in this hell world we live in.

If we're sick it's our fault.

If we take meds to try to manage our illness there's something wrong with us. (We're weak, we're "unnecessarily dependent", we're not trying hard enough or "naturally" enough.)

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If we go to the doctor and cry about our pain, we're too dramatic to be believed.

If we go to the doctor and stay super calm about it, we're not really in pain (because if we were, it would show.)

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If we're too articulate about our illness we're clearly faking it (doing all this research just to fuck with the drkhrd drctrs?)

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But if we're not articulate in the right way or if we get upset or can't "code switch" to talk in whatever arbitrary way a doctor decides in that moment a patient should talk (???!!!)

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we're "ignorant" or "impolite" or any other thing the doctor can think of to dismiss our illness, which they then do.

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If we're thin and young we're "too young and healthy" to be sick so it's just "growing pains" or "anxiety."

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If we're thin and old, well, it's normal to have some aches and pains, isn't it? We really need to just accept and if we can't maybe we need some therapy to address our apparent health problems.

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If we're fat then that automatically the only way to "get better" is to lose weight and doctors won't even run diagnostic tests of any kind. If we're fat then we deserve to die. If we're fat then our lives aren't valuable enough for a doctor to consider.

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The problem is:

Our attitude
Our weight
Our refusal to accept non-reality
Our failure to respect the authority of those who care only about their authority and those who are in the game to make money off of an industry

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that fails to support and systematically harms so many of us.

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Of course those who are not cis men and poc and disabled folx and under-resourced folx (which so many disabled people are) and those who are fat and those who are some combination of the above are most vulnerable in this hellish system.

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But it's not just the health care and insurance companies and Pharma industries that are at fault. Or, at least, some kind of propaganda that influences them or is being propagated by them (I don't know at this point)

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has spread in a way that gives those who are abled and resourced the idea that they are experts on health and better than everyone else. They seem to believe sick/chronically ill/disabled people are "faking it" or are causing our own problems with our bad attitudes

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our "lack of a healthy lifestyle" or whatever nonsense these minions of ableist propaganda can come up with. It's really hard to make a dent in the kind of thinking that seems to be pervasive and it's a horror show and it's not good for anyone. Not even the ableds.

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In closing

#PatientsAreNotFaking
#BeingFatDoesNotMakeUsSick
#BeingYoungDoesNotMakeUsWell
#WheelchairsAreAFormOfFreedom for those of us who need them (and we get to decide that for ourselves)
#AmbulatoryWheelchairUsersExist
#ThereIsNoSuchThingAsThinkingOurWayOutOfIllness

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And last but not least for this particular rant,

#ChronicIllnessCanHappenToAnyone

no matter how much yoga you do, and how much apple cider vinegar you drink, and no matter how much "positive thinking" you do.

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We all have animal bodies, are all vulnerable to illness and disability, and we all deserve considerate, attentive, and appropriate care.

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