My view on #disability as a #disabled person is the 'social model' of disability. That means that I'm not disabled because my body and mind are wrong, I'm disabled because the world doesn't let me engage in the ways that I can.

I found covid lockdown incredibly frustrating for this reason. Things that disabled people had been asking for, and denied, for years were all of a sudden able to be put into place in a matter of weeks. You had businesses that suddenly had work from home policies, healthcare providers were able to telehealth appointments, stores had pickup and delivery options increased - all because abled people were affected, when we'd been asking for these measures for years and told they were impossible.

Often things are literally made more difficult for disabled people just because we're disabled - for example, I am registered with an employment services agency that I have to see face-to-face every fortnight. If I wasn't seeing their disability officer, I would only have to see them once a month. Before I could drive it cost me $30+ in taxi fares to get to my appointments each fortnight.

It's incredibly frustrating and shouldn't be like this. Covid measures showed us that it doesn't have to be like this, and yet society seems to be taking great pains to return back to systems that reduce our access again.

Sorry, I get really annoyed and sad talking about this.

Today's post expanding on my #bio and #Introduction:

I am #disabled.

I have a chronic pain disorder called #fibromyalgia. #Fibro is similar to #MECFS, and is characterised by fatigue and altered sleep, memory and mood.
Widespread muscle pain and tenderness are the most common symptoms.

The way that it manifests for me is pain in around my joints, particularly my shoulders, wrists, and hands, and my knees and feet. Most days I have a background pain level of about 3/10, and my flare-ups pop up to a pain level of about 6-8/10.

I also have back issues that stem from the years I spent as a nurse - I have compressed discs in my cervical spine, in my lumbar-sacral spine, and a zygapophyseal joint around T7 that keeps dislocating.

I'm in pain most days, but I think worse than the pain is the utter exhaustion from dealing with it constantly. I also get frustrated because I used to have a very strong and capable body, and now there's so much that I just can't do.

I'm also #MentallyIll - I have #cptsd, #ocd, #agoraphobia, #anxiety, and some other bits and pieces of cluster-b disorders.

I'm #autistic and have #adhd, my #autism is #SelfDiagnosed at the moment but my psychologist agrees with my assessment, my adhd was diagnosed by a psychiatrist only last year (I'm 48 - if you want to talk about late diagnosis, let me know).

There are other things I deal with like #diabetes and #migraines, but the fibro and spinal injuries are the main ones.

(..continues next post)