I also have a photos-only sideblog at compositecable and a graphics blog at lastpageofmemebase. if you’re over 18, feel free to ask for my 18+ sideblog. ok thanks bye
i wish i didnt have to resort to begging but the situation has gotten pretty bad.
im ila, im a disabled lesbian living with my immigrant partner and right now we owe almost 2k€ euros in unpaid bills from this winter (neither of us were working and we weren’t able to pay any of them on time) to our gas and electricity providers. we are both working part time and we dont make nearly enough money to be able to cover this amount in time before they shut down our power and gas.
our goal is 1,940€. i know its a lot but we are really struggling with money right now and we need all the help we can get. anything helps
P*YPAL: ilariavac kofi: ilariava
06/12 update: 105/1940€
thanks to everyone whos donated so far!
06/14 update: 170/1940€
06/16 update: 180/1940
thanks for all the donations so far! please keep reblogging! ❤️
06/20 update: 245/1940€
06/23: still 245/1940€, please help spread this 🙏🏻
people talk a lot about how autistic people are “super honest” or “blunt” or “don’t lie” or “say exactly how we feel” but really. it isn’t uncommon for autistic people to be unable to verbally express our emotions, or even to recognize how we’re feeling. like saying “i feel sad” instead of “i feel scared” because all bad emotions kind of mix up inside of you, or saying “my head hurts” when i have a stomach ache, because “my head hurts” is a familiar script. a lot of autistic people need extra time, or visual communication (AAC) systems to express how we’re actually feeling. or the anxiety that often comes along with autism makes saying the truth impossible, and an autistic person will just get quiet or say random polite phrases hoping to appease whoever is talking to them (i call this mode in myself “random polite phrase generator” where i literally can’t say anything except ‘i’m sorry’ and 'thank you’)
autism is very m uch a communication disability, and even though it’s fair for autistic people to celebrate their own honesty and ability to be direct, i always feel weird when allistic people expect us to be perfect “always tells the truth” guards
For people talking about the “all bad feelings blur together” thing:
Difficulty knowing what you are feeling is called “alexithymia.” If this is a consistent problem for you, you can search tips for alexithymia. I use a written out feelings wheel where it breaks down different types of feelings. There are lots of graphics and tools like that out there if you know how to look
Alexithymia isn’t exclusive to autism, nor is it a diagnosis in and of itself. It is a common symptom of a lot of things, and anybody who experiences it deserves access to resources
hey now that it’s disability pride month can you please remember to include people with Down syndrome and other chromosomal defects into your activism. they’re so often left behind. I literally never see anyone spreading Down syndrome awareness that isn’t close family of someone with Down syndrome. They exist and they’re living breathing humans who deserve just as much activism as every other disabled person
one of the main failings of the disease model of addiction is that it doesn’t actually say that drug use or alcohol use is morally neutral. it says that people who do them cannot help themselves; it’s not “their fault”.
which still maintains the belief that drug/alcohol use are, fundamentally, Bad, just some people have Diseases which Force Them To Do Bad Things. it actually fits very neatly within reactionary + puritanical beliefs about drug/alcohol use + the benefits it has for reducing stigma/violence against ppl who use drugs (which it has evidently done, to some extent!) are limited by this
expanding on what i said in replies- the disease model was once a very important step in prying our culture away from the idea that drug/alcohol use == purposeful deviancy. it helped others understand the complex biological mechanisms of addiction to certain substances (such as opioids). it released drug/alcohol users from some of the intense shame + opened the doors for treatment to be offered in a less judgmental (+ insurance funded!!!) context.
all of this being said, based on my experience in the field + with the research, the disease model is not on a trajectory to undo itself in the interest of more liberatory + less individualist models. very few people are approaching it as a “stepping stone”.
the trajectory it is on is one that leans towards bioessentialism (ppl who “abuse” drugs/alcohol as biologically flawed in some way, fundamentally different from others), demonizing substances based on cherrypicked research (drugs like opioids or crack cocaine as so inherently dangerous that a single dose can “corrupt” ppl + “turn them” into addicts- do you see the religious rhetoric in here, recast?), + coercive/paternalistic approaches (addicts are biologically incapable of making the “right decisions”/addicts have the “brains of juveniles”/use of medical approaches such as methadone to force ppl into more socially acceptable forms of substance dependence, ones which can exert significant power over individuals.
this trajectory minimizes or abandons approaches that emphasize harm reduction, autonomy, decriminalization, structural/social response, + removing the moral taboo on drug/alcohol use. i have faith that we can empathically acknowledge that the suffering that can come from drug/alcohol use is almost always outside of the sufferers’ control, mired in biological realities, + not a moral failure, all without forcing ourselves into the dead end project of the disease model.
