jumping in to share something transformative I read a while ago:
View "disabled" as the verb it is. It is an action being done TO you via external sources, it is not a characteristic you have or that originated from you. You are being dis-abled by outside forces (society, people, situations, living conditions, capitalism, etc etc etc).
and as autistic + adhd i 100% agree with it. They are only disabilities because of society's unwillingness to accept that there's any other way to perceive / interact with the world.
wheelchairs are only a problem (in this modern era) because people don't bother making accessible buildings & such.
@masukomi@dyani@shivian@ScottSoCal@Zumbador@Susan60@actuallyautistic well yes and no. *All" disabilities aren't only socially constructed.
Example:
ADHD is (mostly) social constructions. Anxiety is not. You can change all the society around someone suffering from anxiety, he/she would remain anxious. Yeah, sure there would be societies more comfortable than others, where symptoms can be controlled or disappear. But anxiety won't be erased.
@Dremmwel@masukomi@dyani@shivian@ScottSoCal@Zumbador@actuallyautistic I think anxiety can & often does exist purely within an individual. And if we don’t recognise that, we’re at risk of seeking to find an external cause, putting ourselves at risk in the process. My own life has had periods of distress & trauma, but when I’m “in a good place”, I’ll turn to big picture issues such as politics, Covid or climate change to justify my anxiety. (This is a major realisation for me. I’m a bit stunned.)
@TeacherGriff@Susan60@Dremmwel@masukomi@dyani@shivian@ScottSoCal@Zumbador@actuallyautistic tangent: I feel like I could starve my anxiety or do something about it, but it has saved me too many times when my social cognition has deteriorated & I've been blindsided by things like allistic office politics. It produces intense negative feelings, but I doubt I would have so many contingency plans without it.
To clarify, if I made a wholehearted attempt to eradicate my anxiety, I have no idea what would happen or whether it's even possible to succeed. All I know is I wouldn't attempt it in the first place cause I know it serves a purpose.
Maybe the textbook definition relies on social constructivism. If so, I... disagree since the social model makes sense to me, but social constructivism does not
thanks for that observation Marytzu. I’m very comfortable with the idea that concepts are tools to think with, that we create together & whose meaning differs in different settings & changes over time, & I can get a bit lazy with it. Hope to hear more …
@26pglt@marytzu@TeacherGriff@Dremmwel@masukomi@dyani@shivian@ScottSoCal@Zumbador@actuallyautistic Constructs aren’t necessarily false or bad, just a way of seeing things. If something is constructed in a way which unfairly & unnecessarily discriminates against against or excessively enables the victimhood of any group, it’s unhelpful. But if it helps to explain why a group is marginalised despite their best efforts & the positive traits/knowledge/skills etc they bring with them, that’s useful.
Agree. I've always regarded psych diagnosis as an explanatory story. Sometimes useful, sometimes not. And always changing. Took care when my daughter was young to avoid diagnosis for her, as those available at the time - BPD, ODD - were not useful. Now, same as for me, she's clearly recognisable as autistic. For her (born in 80s) as for me (born in 50s), when we were little that would not have been identified. My frustrated & furious train-obsessed older brother, yes (tho in those days it was attributed to bad parenting & they medicated my lonely & unsupported mother instead); but me, no way. I like to hold my concepts lightly.
@26pglt@marytzu@TeacherGriff@Dremmwel@masukomi@dyani@shivian@ScottSoCal@Zumbador@actuallyautistic I guess the usefulness of a diagnosis depends on several factors. 1)The responses to a diagnosis on a societal level. Are they useful & helpful? Does diagnosis result in unnecessary & hurtful treatment, exclusion or discrimination? 2) What are an individual’s symptoms & circumstances? Would a diagnosis, tailored support & medication where possible & if helpful, make life easier & more enjoyable with improvements to physical & mental health a probability? I don’t think a diagnosis would’ve been possible for us in the 50s & 60s. The views of what it meant to be autistic were just too narrow. And my heart breaks for the people who were diagnosed, but would life have been any better otherwise? A few loving families might’ve muddled through, but ignorance & lack of support would’ve made that so difficult. It’s very different today, but not always good enough.