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Let’s have a chat about hidden/invisible/not-obvious disabilities. I’m going to come from my position as someone with various mental health conditions and a couple of hidden physical ones as well as being autistic. (Tw: mental health, self-harm) (Thread)
So like, the idea of sharing awareness that not all disabilities are visible comes from a good place. People still have an image of a wheelchair user when it comes to disability, maybe other mobility aids or a white cane etc.
Most disabilities are not visible in that sense, and even those that are may not be visible all of the time. A lot of wheelchair users don’t need them 24/7 for instance.
I want to come at this from a different angle though, and talk about what happens when invisible disabilities have visible components and how people struggle with that, even people who are quite supportive and well up on this stuff.
Let’s take depression. That’s fairly invisible right? You can’t see what’s going on in my head, you don’t hear the abusive inner voice. I might just look tired, or bored. But I self-harm and that’s pretty visible, would you say something if you saw it?
Anxiety is invisible until I’m having a panic attack, what do you do? Autism is invisible but does stimming make you uncomfortable? What about other visible signs of mental health conditions? Verbal or physical ticks? Difficulty with hygiene?
I feel that we like mental health being invisible because then we don’t need to think about it. Even when we do we’re not comfortable talking about conditions that are harder to visually ignore.
Physical - I have severe psoriasis. It’s controlled now with drugs but I used to have it everywhere except my face. It’s a very visible skin condition unless I’m wearing a jumper. I’m no less disabled by it when it’s visible or hidden.
Arthritis again, using a walking stick is a visible thing but there are days when I’m in pain but not enough pain to use the stick (or I’m feeling too self-conscious to use it). Unless you’re watching everyone for limps you wouldn’t tell.
The point of this really is a) I felt like ranting but b) the visible/hidden binary isn’t really a binary, conditions can be in both depending on many things. Best to just believe people I think. /end
