Comments on: poetry as pain management, mitigation, mediation

By: Yolo

Yolo — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 00:56:47 +0000

Wow. thank you for this. means much

By: When You Become Disabled* « She Keeps Bees

When You Become Disabled* « She Keeps Bees — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 19:50:55 +0000

[...] *not exactly poetry, but nevertheless inspired by what cripchick said. [...]

By: DaisyDeadhead

DaisyDeadhead — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 21:41:15 +0000

Lovely poem and post. My Sissy Hankshaw thumb has slowed down my industrial-strength blogging. I was always so proud of my frequent updates. Ha, well... not now. Still banned at FWD, so no real place to talk about that stuff but here. So, let me say, I *do* understand about pain. I feel like some old mare (the proverbial workhorse), though, so not coming from the same lifelong perspective that you are. But it's interesting to watch myself break down (to borrow from Hemingway) first slowly, and then quickly. My left knee has, for instance, taken to buckling for no reason. And my thumb-joint becomes -enormous- in the cold weather; I can predict the weather with it too, like some scary old Appalachian woman with unkempt hair and too many goats in her yard. Love ya. Just letting you know I am still here and still reading, as always. ((kisses))

By: cripchick

cripchick — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 21:34:50 +0000

stephanie, not to go into theory or frameworks but i feel you. i feel like that is definitely a problem associated with an assimilationist disability politic… not having space to talk about the complicated experience/identity that is disability. not being able to talk is really frusterating and makes life so much harder. i hope you find that space soon.

shiva, my dear friend, thank you for the access tip. i couldn’t figure out the coding to change it so i just added to the right hand where it talks about contacting me. i’m glad this layout works for you, let me know if you think that change makes it easier.

By: shiva

shiva — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 01:35:48 +0000

hey! i’ll respond properly to this post (and stephanie’s comment) later, but right now i just wanted to say, i really like your new layout (*much* better than the last one, which i didn’t really get on with, but this one’s probably about my favourite in visual terms of the ones you’ve had), but there’s one little (dunno if i can really call it accessibility?) thing: it’s very hard to see where to click to leave a comment – in fact, until i clicked on the “cut” link in this post and saw the comment form, i thought in this layout it wasn’t possible to leave comments at all (hence my lack of commenting recently!)

(ok, yeah, i know not allowing comments on your blog really wouldn’t be like you, but still…)

so maybe if it’s possible you could add a link saying “add a comment” that can be seen on the main page?

anyway… proper response when i’ve got more verbal spoons available… :)

By: Stephanie Lynn Keil

Stephanie Lynn Keil — Sun, 07 Feb 2010 20:39:59 +0000

I have high-functioning autism, PTSD and multiple learning disabilities and am not allowed to write about the emotional pain of my past or that my mental disorders bring me, at least without SOMEONE getting offended that I am not a super “proud autistic” or that I am actually, *gasp,* negatively effected by my autism and/or other mental/neurological disorders.

I am just told, by other fellow autistics (whom are not as severely affected as me and do not share my history of institutionalization and severe abuse) to “just get over yourself,” and to “stop using ____ as an excuse.”

I’m too “high-functioning” to get real help but too disabled to hold a job, go to school, have friends, etc. I’ll probably live off SSI for the rest of my life because I might not ever get off the waiting list to get “real” help.

Some people don’t like it when I write about the reality of my life.