Hey diabetics, why do you think you're different than every other person with a serious health condition? Why the "but I'M not disabled!!" What makes diabetes different? Because it's not lack of intrusion, it's not effect, it's not money spent. What is it? Thread

"I can continue to live with it!" Ok so that means you're not dead, not that you're not disabled.

"I can still do anything I want!" Can you eat a meal when you're hungry with no thought? Can you go for a run, no planning and no ill effect? Can you go a year without a doctor's visit? Can you go a day without something stabbing into your body? Can you sleep through the night?

"It hasn't effected my life that much!" 1/2 Okay so you weren't hospitalized for days when first diagnosed? Diabetes effects every part of your body, makes you susceptible to every kind of disease. With immaculate care, you can still end up with dozens of other problems

2/2 because diabetes LITERALLY effects every piece of you. And that's with immaculate care, which is hard to get because of price, because of access (hm), because of ableist institutions (hm). So yes, it does, in fact, effect you quite a lot

"I'm stronger than this disease!" Ok, cute, but this isn't a boxing match. You are not stronger than your own body. And if it's you vs. diabetes, diabetes wins every time, because try as you may, you will never be rid of it. Strength has fuck all to do with it

Do you know why you're allowed to legally take low breaks at your job? Why you can even be hired in the first place? Why, at school, you can request time and a half for tests? Why sports teams can't cut you for being diabetic? It's because of disability protections under the ADA

Why, if it's oh-so-not a disability, why do you have so many protections under the Americans with Disabilities Act? What, I'm curious, makes you so different than your neighbors with lupus? Crohn's? CFS? Why are you above them, to work so hard to not be "like them"?

The answer, true and simple, is that you're scared. You worry that if you call yourself what you are, you'll have to face everything that comes with that. You think being disabled is about a state of mind, but it's not. It's about a state of being.

Wanna know a secret? You're already dealing with the negatives of being disabled. People will mock and hate you and make your life harder. They see you as weak. As disposable. They want to find ways to shrink you so small they never have to see you again.

You're denying yourself the gains you could have, while still getting the negatives. You can get accomodations! You can get mental health treatment for disability specifically! You can have a community for people who go through similar issues!

You just have to let go of your internalized ableism first. You have to let go of your degrading and less-than views of disabled people. But it's okay. I know you can do it. Because by reading to the end of this, you're already half way there (end)