(ableism, addiction)

Alright, y'all, who wants an essay about disability? This thread is vitally important to understanding canes, crutches, wheelchairs, walkers, & any other mobility aids. Ask yourself, would you feel shame about using an aid like glasses to do this task?

1/

Would you shame me for using a wheelchair one day so I can use a single crutch the next day? Would you shame me for using a single crutch in 90% of circumstances & then using a wheelchair to navigate a convention or big event? Would you shame me for standing up from my chair? 2/
I have been shamed, verbally & to my face, for all of these things.

Mobility aids are TOOLS. There is no one right or wrong way to use a tool (just ways that might be less likely to cause injury—if you're new to crutches DM me & I can give you a tutorial).

3/
Here's another vital thing to understand. Mobility aids, wheelchairs especially, are LIBERATING. I know to many they look like a symbol of all that you'd give up as an able-bodied person, & I have also struggled with big emotions abt my chairs in childhood & coming back

4/
to my wheelchair when I was an adult. It's okay to grieve the things you lose when your body isn't able to do a thing.

But the wheelchair isn't what you think it is. The wheelchair is FREEDOM and MOVEMENT and ACCESS.

5/
I think about those memes of Steven Hawking floating out of his wheelchair after his death. I shared it that day, saw a critique, slapped my forehead, & removed it. Bc that concept gets it all wrong. What would his life have been without his wheelchair or his voice adapters?

6/
Hawking's wheelchair was a tool that let him connect with people across the world. My wheelchair is EMPOWERING.

I know a person in their 50s whose parent didn't have anyone to explain this, & thought a wheelchair was the last possible resort, to be avoided at all costs.

7/
A wheelchair probably felt like a symbol of failure. If they'd been allowed to use a wheelchair part time starting with their first injury in the 80s, they might not have spent a huge amount of their life & energy & time struggling with debilitating chronic pain & addiction

8/
as they tried to cope by self-medicating. Why was the wheelchair the evil, & not the pain that person had to endure by being forced to walk?

A mobility aid can be a lot of things to a lot of people. I don't get to tell you what it means to you, your body, & your life.

9/
I do ask you to consider that maybe the thing failing a disabled person isn't their body needing an aid to be mobile (what's more human than using a tool & adapting??) & more about the world that's full of inaccessible buildings & transports built by & for able-bodied people. 10/
(See: Senator Duckworth trying to evacuate & find a wheelchair-accessible place to lockdown during the insurrection.)

1/5 people will be disabled in their lifetimes. We're the largest & most diverse minority, bc any human can become disabled at any moment. Including you.

11/
Luckily, humans are wired as tool users. We're wired to adapt. We're wired to overcome struggle through trial and error and engineering. Mobility aids are seeing advances in technology that we couldn't have dreamed about when I got my first wheelchair as a kid.

12/
Here's the other thing to consider—the archaeological record shows that for a long, long, LONG time, humans have been wired to care for each other even w injuries that would slow down a group of hunter-gatherers for months or longer. We're wired to take care of each other.

13/
Ableism is a social construct. It's woven into western cultural narratives on independence, productivity, perfection, & who has value as a person. But it doesn't have to be that way. So many cultures treat disability differently.

14/
Wrapping up this #DisabilityActivism essay thread with my favorite @BreneBrown quote:

"You are imperfect, you are wired for struggle, but you are worthy of love and belonging."

#HealingVisibly

15/15

More from Health

I applaud the #EUCancerPlan *BUT* caution: putting #meat 🥩 (a nourishing, evolutionary food) in the same box as 🚬 to solve a contemporary health challenge, would be basing policy on assumptions rather than robust data.

#FollowTheScience yes, but not just part of it!
THREAD👇


1/ Granted, some studies have pointed to ASSOCIATIONS of HIGH intake of red & processed meats with (slightly!) increased colorectal cancer incidence. Also, @WHO/IARC is often mentioned in support (usually hyperbolically so).

But, let’s have a closer look at all this! 🔍


2/ First, meat being “associated” with cancer is very different from stating that meat CAUSES cancer.

Unwarranted use of causal language is widespread in nutritional sciences, posing a systemic problem & undermining credibility.

3/ That’s because observational data are CONFOUNDED (even after statistical adjustment).

Healthy user bias is a major problem. Healthy middle classes are TOLD to eat less red meat (due to historical rather than rational reasons, cf link). So, they

4/ What’s captured here is sociology, not physiology.

Health-focused Westerners eat less red meat, whereas those who don’t adhere to dietary advice tend to have unhealthier lifestyles.

That tells us very little about meat AS SUCH being responsible for disease.

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प्राचीन काल में गाधि नामक एक राजा थे।उनकी सत्यवती नाम की एक पुत्री थी।राजा गाधि ने अपनी पुत्री का विवाह महर्षि भृगु के पुत्र से करवा दिया।महर्षि भृगु इस विवाह से बहुत प्रसन्न हुए और उन्होने अपनी पुत्रवधु को आशीर्वाद देकर उसे कोई भी वर मांगने को कहा।


सत्यवती ने महर्षि भृगु से अपने तथा अपनी माता के लिए पुत्र का वरदान मांगा।ये जानकर महर्षि भृगु ने यज्ञ किया और तत्पश्चात सत्यवती और उसकी माता को अलग-अलग प्रकार के दो चरू (यज्ञ के लिए पकाया हुआ अन्न) दिए और कहा कि ऋतु स्नान के बाद तुम्हारी माता पुत्र की इच्छा लेकर पीपल का आलिंगन...

...करें और तुम भी पुत्र की इच्छा लेकर गूलर वृक्ष का आलिंगन करना। आलिंगन करने के बाद चरू का सेवन करना, इससे तुम दोनो को पुत्र प्राप्ति होगी।परंतु मां बेटी के चरू आपस में बदल जाते हैं और ये महर्षि भृगु अपनी दिव्य दृष्टि से देख लेते हैं।

भृगु ऋषि सत्यवती से कहते हैं,"पुत्री तुम्हारा और तुम्हारी माता ने एक दुसरे के चरू खा लिए हैं।इस कारण तुम्हारा पुत्र ब्राह्मण होते हुए भी क्षत्रिय सा आचरण करेगा और तुम्हारी माता का पुत्र क्षत्रिय होकर भी ब्राह्मण सा आचरण करेगा।"
इस पर सत्यवती ने भृगु ऋषि से बड़ी विनती की।


सत्यवती ने कहा,"मुझे आशीर्वाद दें कि मेरा पुत्र ब्राह्मण सा ही आचरण करे।"तब महर्षि ने उसे ये आशीर्वाद दे दिया कि उसका पुत्र ब्राह्मण सा ही आचरण करेगा किन्तु उसका पौत्र क्षत्रियों सा व्यवहार करेगा। सत्यवती का एक पुत्र हुआ जिसका नाम जम्दाग्नि था जो सप्त ऋषियों में से एक हैं।