A community/support group for chronically ill people. While anyone is welcome, our number one priority is keeping this a safe space for chronically ill people.
This is a support group, not a place for people to spout their opinions on disability.
Be excellent to each other
Absolutely no ableism. This includes harmful stereotypes: lazy/freeloaders etc
No quackery. Does an up-to date major review in a big journal or a major government guideline come to the conclusion you’re claiming is fact? No? Then don’t claim it’s fact. This applies to potential treatments and disease mechanisms.
No denialism or minimisation This applies challenges faced by chronically ill people.
No psychosomatising psychosomatisation is a tool used by insurance companies and governments to blame physical illnesses on mental problems, and thereby saving money by not paying benefits. There is no concrete proof psychosomatic or functional disease exists with the vast majority of historical diagnoses turning out to be biomedical illnesses medicine has not discovered yet. Psychosomatics is rooted in misogyny, and consisted up until very recently of blaming women’s health complaints on “hysteria”.
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My MIL went off the vegan deep end about a year ago. She 100% believes that anything can be cured by going vegan, and non plant-based foods are what causes every issue. Not even exaggerating, she believes that within 8 weeks of going vegan, you'll be cured of: alzheimers, dementia, diabetes, cancer, hormone issues, autoimmune diseases, permanent disabilities, autism, and basically anything else wrong with you genetic or otherwise.
You can tell her you met someone, me, who has two of the things on your list and has been vegan for 3 years.
It's sweet that you think facts or reality matter to her, that went out the window a long time ago. We also stopped talking to her a couple months ago, for a lot of reasons
Congrats on that decision, sounds like it's good for you!
Not even exaggerating, she believes that within 8 weeks of going vegan, you’ll be cured of: alzheimers, dementia, diabetes, cancer, hormone issues, autoimmune diseases, permanent disabilities, autism, and basically anything else wrong with you genetic or otherwise.
As someone with at least two things on your list, this sounds perfectly believable to me, and she's far from alone - people who buy in to this and similar crap (have you tried yoga? Acupuncture? Reiki? Keto? Fasting? the list never ends) will pop up like slimy slugs after it rains to pester disabled people with their almost missionary, ableist bullshit.
I have IBD, which is something that often requires surgery. I’ve seen so many people online shaming IBD sufferers for getting parts of their colon removed rather than “just trying keto/vegan/whatever”, as if they wouldn’t have died without the surgery. It infuriates me to no end that they blame the victims of these diseases, like we haven’t all tried god knows how many diets to get the pain to stop.
Surprised I haven't seen this in the replies. This type of thinking is why Steve Jobs tried to fast and diet his way out of pancreatic cancer which led to his death.
I had a younger co worker at work not know who steve jobs was / didn't know how he died and I explained it as "he tried to cure his cancer by doing fruit about it" lol
The difference is that Steve Jobs was a fruitarian which is dangerous.
Posting the second tweet (or whatever bluesky calls it) because the context is important imo:
I agree with all of this.
$0.02: bigots need rigidly defined in/out groups to feel strong and safe, and their awful behavior is self-reinforcing through fear of their peers. More succinctly: everyone in that club knows how they treat "others", and so fear being one themselves. This also explains why social progress meets so much backlash, as bigots are clinging to their rules like a kind of psychological life-preserver.
Also applies to "I'd rather die than be disabled" in its many forms.
And I just posted this in another comment, but I think it's relevant here too:
What's wrong with "I'd rather die than be disabled"? To me it looks a legitimate personal moral stance.
peak MeRiToCrAcY
At the risk of receiving the ire of Lemmy, there are some notable exceptions to this. I can't speak for all disabilities, but for bipolar disorder, there are a LOT of non-pharmecutical things I have done that makes my life so much better. For me, the #1 best thing I can do is exercise. It sucks because that is the most intensive thing to do, but once I started running a 5k a day, and then cooled down a bit due to my poor knees (now I got into rock climbing), I have been listed as "Bipolar-in remission" by my doctors. This isn't just anecdotal, there is plenty of research on this subject that shows the link between exercise and mental health.
I would also consider "taking my meds" as under the "healthy living my way out of disability", but just taking them isn't enough.
I of course will extend the caveat that I am physically abled to do these exercises, and there are bipolar folks who are unable to make this happen, but if I'm offered a tool to help make my life better, I'm going to use it.
Also to extend deeper into the ire, when people with bipolar disorder choose not to take their diagnosis seriously and refuse treatment, not only can it be harmful to those around them, but also to those of us who are trying to shirk the stereotype of "unstable and dangerous manic depressive". When Kanye was manic and went off on his neo Nazi rants, many people said "well, he's bipolar so it's not really his fault". He wasn't taking meds, and he was ignoring his health leading into it.
Personally, that exoneration is upsetting because so many of us are putting in the effort to live healthy stable lives and accept responsibility for our actions, even when manic. Being manic is an explanation for terrible behavior, but it isn't an excuse. When we believe that bipolar people can't help but be awful, people will hear about my diagnosis and believe that I will be awful and I can't help it. It's dehumanizing.
One more note on this post- it seems to lend itself to hopelessness. Of course it was talking about chronic illness as a whole, and of course chronic illness isn't a monolith, but having the thought of "there's nothing that can be done" isn't something I'm willing to accept, at least for myself. To quote Emily Dickinson, Hope is the thing with feathers that perches in the soul and it sings the tune without the words and never stops at all. Every day I hope that tomorrow will be better than today, but I know hope is merely enough. I need to do the work. Sometimes I don't hear the tune, but it's always there waiting should I lend an ear.
I think what the post does very well in it's most core point is address the stigma that abled people have towards the disabled. I'd say the imperative word in the post is "just". You can't just healthy living your way out of chronic illness. For some, healthy living has a huge benefit, but for me to get to where I am wasn't easy, in fact it asks for effort every day, and I know to be in my current mental space takes a lot more effort than it does for others.
From BoJack Horseman: it gets easier. Every day it gets a little easier, But you gotta to do it every day, that's the hard part. But it does get easier.
TL;DR I live with Bipolar disorder and I have found healthy living has saved my life, and while many can't do what I do, letting people off the hook for not taking care of themselves with a dangerous illness creates the stereotypes that negatively impacts people who manage their bipolar disorder.
Edit just to cover my basses, when talking about folks that choose not to address their bipolar disorder/ not exclusing manic episodes, I'm addressing those with a diagnosis and have the means to access medications and help and then actively choose not to. I'm more willing to cut some slack for someone who had a bad prescription and are still finding what works for them, or folks who don't have access to medical care (which is an abomination that medicine isn't universally accessible).
Also have bipolar, used to walk and run all the time.... didn't help
Ya know what did help? Getting medication and realizing how inappropriate and insane the shit I did when I was either tripping balls on a mania or suffering agony and desiring death in a depression. Now all I can do is try to make amends with anyone I wronged while I wasn't in my right mind, and try to remember things that I just buried during the wild mood swings.
God, I gotta call my therapist tomorrow there's no way around it
Tried this back in the day... Didn't help
Even now I still freak out when I remember the shit I did before I got actual help instead of trying to "vibe away the disorders of the mind.", I know I was a literally different person back then who wasn't getting help, but still.... cringe
You can, but there's only 24 hours in a day.
Yeah I’ll just healthy living my way out of my genetic defect
It was meant as a hyperbole.
I’ve don’t have chronic illness and have never been given this bullshit, but I’ve seen enough posts like this to wonder what those guys are thinking. I’m 100% sure that anyone with chronic illness has been given better advice from healthier people. Why do they think they’re special?
Very often we have tried to do those things, and they don't work.
I figured, the arrogance to do that also means they probably won’t care. Still, I think that every time. Surely they’re mostly in subpar shape themselves
I think you're in subpar shape yourself
Hey maybe