Okay so... I’ve been doing relatively okay mental health wise in all this and I finally realized why. One thing that’s happened since the pandemic is that suddenly all the interpersonal and structural ableism that I was experiencing almost daily before disappeared.

Like it was all put on pause. Because working from home and talking to people on the phone is basically my brains fave thing. And everyone is suddenly cool with that. And while there are many things that I’m struggling with under the pandemic — esp all the eugenics stuff...

The amount of stress that has become normal to me because of very persistent forms of ableism over the last three years is actually higher in general than dealing with pandemic stress in some way? Like I am used to this level of stress. To way more stress even. Daily.

Which is a really fucked up realization about the impact of ableism on disabled people that I think abled people should understand. This amount of stress is unprecedented for you. This is less than my normal. Just because of ableism.