I wrote something!

[sasha_feather]

On Living Without a Diagnosis at FWD/Forward. Please leave me comments there or at Dreamwidth (if you want).

Comments

[green]

Great post, and your icon is hilarious. ♥

[jesse_the_k]

Super cool, sweet heart!

[sasha_feather]

Thanks!

[sasha_feather]

Thanks!

[sasha_feather]

Yeah, it is a huge, hard acceptance process when you are dealing with a chronic illness. I faced a lot of people who thought that acceptance equaled "giving up hope" which is not at all what it means to me. Acceptance means rebuilding and getting on with my life. Also a lot of "try this treatment" or "just until that next specialist" which is tiresome and frustrating. So anyway, yeah, the disability community has been the best thing for me.

[grntserendipity]

You are made of awesome. How does one go about submitting posts for the disabled feminist blog?

[sasha_feather]

Check out http://disabledfeminists.com/guest-posting-at-fwd/

[amadi]

It was quite a good read. And your icon is awesome.

[sasha_feather]

Thanks!

[bluemeridian]

Excellent article, and one that I think a lot of people can relate to. It's a tough thing realizing the fallibilities of the medical establishment (and just how well they adapt to those failings, which is too often not at all). My doctor just left general practice for a concentration in sports medicine and I need to find a new one before my prescription runs out, which means I have a month. I am very much not looking forward to it. :(

[sasha_feather]

Ugh, yeah, I hate shopping for new doctors. Best of luck in dealing with that. Thanks for your comment!

[rhivolution]

Excellent writing and important words. Thank you!

[sasha_feather]

Thanks for reading!

[kaz]

I will hopefully be able to leave a longer comment later, but... coming from someone who's been "self-diagnosed" autistic for five years and Officially Officially diagnosed for one this is an EXCELLENT post. :) (The diagnosis-yea-or-nay question is one that I actually found very, very difficult and I hate the way this gets downplayed in a lot of dialogue around AS in particular.)

[sasha_feather]

Yes! There are so many aspects to this-- the way diagnosis can be a relief or another burden to bear, another stigma or a way into a community. I feel like there is a lot to say about this topic. <3 Thanks for you comment!

[kaz]

Y y y. And diagnosis for different disabilities, as well. Like, had this interesting experience in the disability office where after bringing in my documentation to show I had AS the woman asked whether I wanted to put down my speech disorder while I was at it, and I told her I'd have to figure out where my documentation for that was (given that IIRC the okay-it's-permanent diagnosis happened when I was twelve or thereabouts) and she told me I wouldn't need any for that. Despite the fact that I was pretty fluent talking to her and I don't think most people would have identified me as stuttering from that conversation. So it's like, some disabilities you need the outside confirmation before they'll believe you, for others you don't?

Or the massive massive stigma that not being diagnosed carries with it for Asperger's (don't know how it affects other ASDs but for AS this is really pretty ridiculous) and the way people do not realise that there are valid reasons not to seek one out even if you are damn sure you have AS. Or that getting one might not always be easy or even possible. And so on.

And I haven't even experienced the wonder of what happens when the diagnoses don't fit right. (Except possibly for the fact that I still cannot figure out if I have ADD or not, but there I've pretty much decided that there's no point in trying to untangle it.)

[urocyon]

Excellent post. Thanks!

I could really identify with what you were saying, having chronic musculoskeletal stuff which I am still trying to figure out on my own.

[sasha_feather]

Best of luck to you! Thanks for your comment. <3

[eggcrack]

Wonderful post! As somebody who has a need for labels this really made me think about why I exactly need them, and I suspect I'll be thinking about that in the future too.

Also, love the icon. <3

[sasha_feather]

Thanks! Labels can be really useful, but they have their limits. I will definitely continue thinking about this topic. Thanks for reading. :)

[opinion_rush]

Great post! Thank you. Definitely food for thought.

[sasha_feather]

Thank you!