See Disability

This meme always makes me want to scream. When I see it posted by disabled people themselves it makes me want to swallow my own eyeballs...

What Is Mine?

How do you learn to love a body when you don't feel full ownership of it? This piece feels very strange to write, because so much of it feels like old ground. And in a sense that's absolutely true. Once again I find myself in the position of trying to accept and love my body …

Physical Health, Mental Health, and Parity of Esteem

A little while ago, something very strange happened to me… For the past three or four months, I’ve been trying to get back into better physical shape.  The combination of a pandemic radically altering my ability to get out and about for over a year because it didn’t feel safe, and my mental health deteriorating …

‘Afterthunk’ And Other Therapy Words

Therapy, and I say this with a deep love and respect and passion for it, is absolutely weird. I’ve been in long term therapy for a very long time and have no plans to stop any time soon, maybe in a few months or years’ time, the results of my current work will end up …

Where I’ve Gone

“When people ask me how I am they might as well be asking where I’ve gone” Reagan Myers, ‘Depression is Funny Like That’ I wrote on this blog for the first time in nearly 18 months about three weeks ago.  I’m still finding my way and I’m still not sure if I can keep writing, …

Resolution

I've come back to this space after a long time. I don't know if I can still write. I don't know if anyone would still read. Since the pandemic I've lost a lot of who I was, I've lost a lot of things which I won't list here. In many ways I feel a broken …

The Ramp

There's a strange sort of inevitability about finally having a storm around ableism that's started by the existence of a ramp. It's one of the first examples that most people think of when talking about accessibility, a lack of one is the opening scene in the Paralympian Tanni Grey-Thompson's autobiography - a book that was …

Mental Health Awareness Week: An Updated Spotter’s Guide

It's that time of the year again folks!  Yes glory be, it's the middle of May and it is once again 'Mental Health Awareness Week' here in the UK.  Not to be outdone, the US designates May as 'Mental Health Awareness Month' thus ensuring that we get subjected to a deluge of platitudes and sugarcoating …

Mental Health and the Other ‘S’ Word

Today I'd like to share some thoughts with you.  These are thoughts about mental health, public perceptions of it, and one especially touchy subject that many people find difficult to talk about.  It's a dirty word uttered in hushed voices, and it begins with 'S'.  It's also my least favourite word in the mental health …

Not OK: Virus and Vulnerability

Two months in lockdown.  I have been outside of my house maybe a handful of times in that period.  That's not a brag, but a safety measure.  I happened to have a cold at the time when COVID-19 was starting to become a thing in the UK and thus have been locked down voluntarily without a complaint …