I had an absence this morning, just before breakfast. It wasn’t a particularly bad one and nothing to worry about, but it was one of my first in a while so it was more or less due. I was thinking recently, though, about how I always tried to ignore those things, even convincing myself that I was imagining them: on the whole I think playing them down was far healthier than letting them get to me. Yet that seems to me to contrast starkly with the prevailing attitude today: sorry to go on about this, but people currently seem very eager to play up whatever medical conditions they might have, even blatantly exaggerating them and using them as the basis for their online personas. As someone who was always taught to play down his disabilities and just get on with life, this growing mass hypochondria is starting to seem very strange. Surely it is wiser not to focus on whatever disabilities or impairments you might have, rather than using them as the basis of your entire personality in order to attract attention and pity.
- Comment
- Reblog
-
Subscribe
Subscribed
Have a WordPress.com account? Log in now.
I know Chronically Jenni et al gets up your nose, but I think you are being a little harsh. I don’t think they’re hypochondriacs or sympathy-seekers. I don’t think they’re faking it – if anything, they’re probably faking being well-looking. Hidden diseases are hard to live with – you look fine on the outside but looking well isn’t the same as being well.
There’s been an acceleration of post-covid conditions such as ME, autoimmune diseases and POTS after a failure to control the spread of covid, and there’s not a great deal of support for these things, if any. Covid also further disabled people who had mild disabilities. Maybe why we’re seeing more disabled people online and you’re seeing more wheelchair spots taken up on buses?
LikeLiked by 1 person
I don’t think I’m angry that increasing numbers of people are identifying as disable per se, as much as that they’re now taking the entire disability discourse as their own, and talking over the rest of us.
LikeLike
I don’t think you’re harsh on Jenny at all. In fact you’re completely cracked. I’ve said to you that mentioning her by name isn’t a good idea but I don’t see the issue here. If the disabled community don’t wake up, they’re going to find themselves outnumbered by hyps and I don’t care if that’s insulting. It’s more insulting for me to have to put up with someone like Jenny and her bothersome whole existence but I’m sorry, sorry for your absence. I forgot you had this condition but if you want to talk, I’m always online.
LikeLike