The Anxiety Ninja

I have a personal story to share that encompasses invisible disabilities, mental health, and ableism. There was this time where I went to hospital emergency with my best friend because I was clean out of places to go for professional support for my anxiety, and was told that the hospital would be my best bet because there was one right beside campus where I lived. 

While in the waiting room, someone who was dressed as though they were a convict (orange jumper, handcuffs, and was accompanied by police officers) appeared. My friend and I were chatting, and ended up commenting amongst ourselves about how his shoes looked like Crocs. We made some joke about how being forced to wear Crocs was pretty serious punishment. This stranger who was passing by must have caught our conversation, because she commented something along the lines of: 

“Shouldn’t he be sent to the mental health ward?”

(I can’t remember the exact quote as this was several months ago, but it connected the convict to “the mental health ward”)

After this person departed, I leaned over to my friend to try and make a joke about the one thing that was on my mind: “Hey, but isn’t that where I’m going?”

This stranger didn’t know that I was there for mental health help. She didn’t know why the convict (if he even was one) was there, either. Yet the assumption was made that he had a mental illness and I did not. I catch people nearly every day making comments like these that completely ignore the fact that there are disabilities and mental health issues that do not present visibly. Furthermore, to assume that someone has something on the basis of a stereotype, appearance, or symptom, is equally as problematic. 

So stop making jokes about wanting to kill yourself. Stop using “depressed”, “insane”, “OCD”, “anxious”, and ableist language as adjectives. Stop bringing up suicide like it’s juicy gossip that doesn’t hurt the people around you who hear it.  Although being invisible can be a real privilege at times, there are other times where people will invalidate you directly for not looking the part, or make hurtful comments your struggles without even knowing that you have them. A piece of advice I hear all the time is that you have no way of knowing anyone’s full story and struggle. It’s time for people to start thinking about that more when it comes to issues such as this. The message of this story is also exceptionally important regarding the similar way that sexuality and gender are not visible, but are heavily stereotyped or attributed to specific behavior.

Anyways, this hospital story luckily ended in me having a doctor that had a jawline so sharp that I bet it could open a letter, my pronouns being well respected, and my friend was able to finally get some studying done without being distracted in the waiting room. Plus, I got this fantastic story to help me explain invisible disabilities and mental health.

TLDR individuals with invisible disabilities are essentially ninjas and we will hunt you down 

acdwatson:

naked sleepover forts

Men and women are both from Earth. They were immediately moved to Mars and Venus and told that they were not allowed to travel. 

yvvxv:

*stares at selfies until they turn ugly* I knew it

crown-queen-bambee:

fresh-princess-of-gallifrey:

aviolafyre:

“Makeup is false advertising!”

Oh that’s funny.
Because I’m not a product.
And I’m not trying to sell myself to you.

you can hear the mic drop

All of this

just little mentally ill things

coldhabits:

• being exhausted even after laying in bed and doing nothing all day
• requiring an extensive amount of time to rest in between simple tasks because it takes a lot of energy out of you 
• constantly feeling like you’re running a never-ending race while everyone else is ahead of you 
• being categorized as “lazy” “oversensitive” “childish” and/or “crazy”
  
• always worrying about your future and what’s going to happen to you
• feeling like you’ll never be “normal” and capable of functioning like other people your age 
• being misunderstood by everyone you come into contact with
• unable to form close, healthy relationships with other people due to trust or abandonment issues
  

ssjgssjgoku:

like ten years ago i drew a comic strip entitled “if the president were a moth” in which the president is a human sized moth watching the olympics and when they light the torch it flies off in pursuit of it and then two cia guys stand up and shout “MR. PRESIDENT!!!!!!!” i was really ahead of my time

robotgem:

“what’s your favorite position in bed?”

 near the wall so i can use my phone while it’s charging

What is clothing tags grew back like hair, and you kept cutting that awful paper thing out but within a day it was this unbearable stubby thing again that jabs at your neck until you clip it again or give up. And people who never cut their tags just end up with these fruit-roll-up long papers sticking out of their shirt collars that make everyone uncomfortable

captioningcrusader:

anyone who’s been following this blog knows that we’re highly susceptible to popular memes  

be the johnlock trash that you want to see in the world

dialupmodem:

this generation is so lazy! get off ur ass and start a war! or ruin the economy or something! how do i send an e-mail! 

farorescourage:

nltm:

It’s a hot race for Worst User Interface Update 2015 but the judges still think Skype has the upper hand so far. Let’s sit back and see what else Tumblr has up its sleeve in the coming months. Back to you, John.

John here, despite Skype having won by a landslide by…

Let’s play a game!

robotslenderman:

kkalcollection:

adhesivesandscrap:

femlourry:

airbornranchdressing:

anakihn:

foxberryblue:

Stand where you are, look around, and list whatever liquidy thing is closest to you. This is now your fanfic lube.

GO THROUGH THE TAGS ON THIS POST OH MY GOD.

i decided to go through the first couple hundred tags (i had to stop bc i was laughing too hard) and here are some highlights

I lost it at the glitter glue

my whole torso hurts from laughing and i’m dizzy

A margarita.

explodinghye:

ah yes, snakes. the long dogs. the ploppy puppies. the lively noodles. the snoot boops. the excited spaghettis