I DO THIS TOO! I suspect it's internalized ableism a lot of the time. Like, I have done so much around accepting my bendy-spoonie chronic-pain hEDS experience and I've got systems for managing it and have learned how to accept it when something dislocated or a muscle seizes up. It's *familiar*. But then, when something new goes weird (I had a bout of pancreatitis recently, for totally unknown reasons since I don't drink nor eat any of the foods that commonly lead to pancreatitis) with my body, I have zero patience or tolerance for it. And yet, when I look back at these experiences, it's little wonder I was a mess. I unfortunately apply that my familiarity with one thing should make me better, somehow, at coping with something entirely different. "I live with chronic pain, why did this *entirely different experience of pain in an area I usually never feel it* undo me?"
Well, there's my answer in my own frustration. I think: I am not someone with pancreas issues therefore, I do not deserve to be so undone by this pain. I am someone who *knows* pain, therefore I should be able to cope. But tension headaches and dislocation and muscular pain is very different to gut pain and an acute thing is very different to a chronic pain. I know what to expect when it comes to hEDS so I can roll with it. Familiarity makes things significantly easier to handle and either respond to or simply accept.
We accept our bodies because they are us and we are them - we need to accept ourselves to have any chance at good mental health or happiness. Most of us are less willing to accept periodic illness and accident as part of ourselves, and so we treat them as enemies - it's human nature. I reckon.
Hi! Fantastic piece (as always). I've struggled with benign positional vertigo on and off over the years, and it's where (and I'm paraphrasing), crystals in the inner ear go the wrong way and create the nausea and dizziness and seasickness. There's also a similar thing that happens (started in the last few years), where I get migraines triggered by strobe lighting etc. I've taken prochloroperazine for the sickness which helps, and thinking about trying migraine meds too. I've also started getting hormonal migraines (thanks perimenopause), and wearing sunglasses (in the house/at concerts etc) can help. Also thinking snout trying travel sickness meds!
I DO THIS TOO! I suspect it's internalized ableism a lot of the time. Like, I have done so much around accepting my bendy-spoonie chronic-pain hEDS experience and I've got systems for managing it and have learned how to accept it when something dislocated or a muscle seizes up. It's *familiar*. But then, when something new goes weird (I had a bout of pancreatitis recently, for totally unknown reasons since I don't drink nor eat any of the foods that commonly lead to pancreatitis) with my body, I have zero patience or tolerance for it. And yet, when I look back at these experiences, it's little wonder I was a mess. I unfortunately apply that my familiarity with one thing should make me better, somehow, at coping with something entirely different. "I live with chronic pain, why did this *entirely different experience of pain in an area I usually never feel it* undo me?"
Well, there's my answer in my own frustration. I think: I am not someone with pancreas issues therefore, I do not deserve to be so undone by this pain. I am someone who *knows* pain, therefore I should be able to cope. But tension headaches and dislocation and muscular pain is very different to gut pain and an acute thing is very different to a chronic pain. I know what to expect when it comes to hEDS so I can roll with it. Familiarity makes things significantly easier to handle and either respond to or simply accept.
We accept our bodies because they are us and we are them - we need to accept ourselves to have any chance at good mental health or happiness. Most of us are less willing to accept periodic illness and accident as part of ourselves, and so we treat them as enemies - it's human nature. I reckon.
Hi! Fantastic piece (as always). I've struggled with benign positional vertigo on and off over the years, and it's where (and I'm paraphrasing), crystals in the inner ear go the wrong way and create the nausea and dizziness and seasickness. There's also a similar thing that happens (started in the last few years), where I get migraines triggered by strobe lighting etc. I've taken prochloroperazine for the sickness which helps, and thinking about trying migraine meds too. I've also started getting hormonal migraines (thanks perimenopause), and wearing sunglasses (in the house/at concerts etc) can help. Also thinking snout trying travel sickness meds!