Mental Health

Balancing your mental health with your physical health while being chronically ill sometimes feels impossible. But we are here to tell you that you are not alone in struggling with this.

What you need are some simple tools that will help you when things get tough and remind you that you are worthy of love no matter how productive you are and you’ve come to the right place.

Feeling confident as a visibly disabled person

FEELING CONFIDENT AS A VISIBLY DISABLED PERSON ⁠
There is nothing quite like the first time you go out with a new mobility aid. ⁠It doesn’t matter if this is your first time using one or you’ve just upgraded from one type to another. The questions, stares and insecurities all come flooding in and leave you wondering if you really need it. ⁠For a non-disabled person, this can be hard to imagine, with the idea that only people with obvious limb disabilities require mobility aids still a common attitude.

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My story has value

MY STORY HAS VALUE
This quote from Hannah Gadsby’s Nanette has always resonated with me but now more than ever: my story has value. When I launched the NYG membership I once again had the privilege to learn and listen to people’s stories of disability and chronic illness. Although our stories are similar, each is a unique and incredibly personal depiction of adversity, triumph and loss.
The complex diagnoses that accompany chronic illnesses and disabilities can often result in stories filled with the heart-breaking recounting of losing every part of yourself only to find something that much more beautiful beneath all those layers. For many, uncovering the vulnerable inner you and having the courage to finally step out into the light as your true self, accepting and acknowledging both your strengths and limits, is freeing.

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Finding quality of life in chronic illness

FINDING QUALITY OF LIFE IN CHRONIC ILLNESS
Life with a chronic illness can sometimes feel like work/sleep/clean – repeat indefinitely.
It’s sometimes as if all the fun is sucked out of life because of fatigue and limited energy, but what if I told you doing things just because they make you happy is allowed too? What if I told you, it’s not only possible, it can actually be beneficial to step away from the cleaning, let the house get a little messier and spend some time on yourself instead?

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What is radical acceptance?

WHAT IS RADICAL ACCEPTANCE?
Radical acceptance sounds like the kind of new-age bull you might want to steer clear of, along with juice cleanses and ‘think yourself better’, but it’s not what you think.
Before we talk about what radical acceptance really is, we need to highlight what it definitely isn’t!
Radical acceptance is not approval of a situation. Just because you are accepting a situation for what it is, it does not mean that you think it’s good or right. It just means you are aware you can’t change it.
Radical acceptance, at its core, is about recognising what we can and can’t control in our lives. There are some things, like whether or not you become sick, you don’t get a say in. It’s about finding a way to live with that situation as peacefully as possible.
For many chronically ill people it can be hard, particularly when first diagnosed, to accept the challenges and limitations a chronic diagnosis can bring. Sometimes, it can feel that the negatives outweigh all the positives in our daily lives. Radical acceptance is one way to help balance the complexity of feelings chronic illnesses and disability can bring.

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How to create a support system

EVER WISHED THAT YOU COULD HAVE A CHRONIC ILLNESS FAIRY GODMOTHER?
Caring for a chronically ill bod is tiring, not to mention expensive, but what if there was a better way?
People living with chronic illnesses need access to so many things, in fact you need a team of therapists, physios, occupational therapists, nutritionists and so many more. However, it’s rare we get the chance to have all that and even if you do it’s unlikely everyone in the team really understands chronic illness and disability, which is the key to getting the best care.
Finding a specialist who really ‘gets’ what an illness or condition means for everyday living can take months or even years of research, trial and error, and is often an unaffordable expense.

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WHAT IS MEDICAL TRAUMA?

WHAT IS MEDICAL TRAUMA?
**Trigger warning for this post just because of the mention of medical trauma, PTSD, COVID etc**

Medical trauma is something you hear in the disabled community a lot but rarely do we talk about what counts as medical trauma – and I think you might be surprised to learn how much actually does!

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WHAT ARE USABLE HOURS AND WHAT HAVE THEY GOT TO DO WITH CHRONIC ILLNESS?

WHAT ARE USABLE HOURS AND WHAT HAVE THEY GOT TO DO WITH CHRONIC ILLNESS?

Usable hours is a way of explaining how fatigue affects your ability to do things. We all have the same number of hours in a day but for someone with fatigue, they only have a limited number in which they can complete tasks.

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What is Emotional Labour

Why disabled people have a rocky history with academia
Unfortunately, when it comes to education, academic institutions often fail even the most basic tests in accessibility. Learning how to make education accessible for students (and educators) with a whole range of disabilities should be an ongoing priority for schools, colleges and universities, but it seems many still have serious lessons to be learnt.

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Social Model vs Medical Model in Disability – What’s The Difference?

When we look at disability, there are two very different models used, called the medical and social models of disability.
The medical model looks at disability as something that needs to be fixed or changed. Disability is seen as a bad thing, even if it doesn’t cause someone pain or harm.
The social model of disability says that a person is only disabled because of society’s inaccessibility and the way it treats disability, rather than their difference.
Let’s explore the differences between the two models in more detail!

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Not your inspiration!

Inspiration p⭐rn is a term that was coined in 2012 by disability rights activist Stella Young.
This term portrays people with disabilities as inspirational, solely or in part because of their disability and describes how disabled people are often used as motivation for non-disabled people.
Stella’s reason for using the term p⭐rn was to highlight the objectification of one group of people for the benefit of another group of people.
So what exactly is inspiration p⭐rn and why can this term be a bad thing? Let’s take a further look!

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