On hapiness.

20:50

I was to my new therapy, only a second meeting, when it was said.
“Well, you have to let yourself feel grief. Be scared. Be afraid.”
And it got me thinking, cause it’s not the first time I was told this when I confess I do not cry. Like, at all. Like people think I need to be scared, like it’s taken for granted I MUST be scared.

The thing is. I am *not* afraid. I worry. A lot. I overthink. I can't sleep. But I am not scared.
It's sad, when you look at it - someone so used to pain they are not scared of their whole future life being pain, worse pain. But it is what it is.
I am okay with my chair. I am happy I'm on my chair.
And that's what people can't seem to understand.

I have a stalker. My relationship, one where I ended up raped, abused, severely beaten up, was as you can imagine a rather dramatic thing, with a rather dramatic ending. I cut all the ties connecting me with my ex – except my facebook account. How do you ever chance your facebook account after something like that? I blocked her, that was all I could do.
But I forgot she had friends, simply cause for three years she didn’t let me have any. And one of her friends (at least I think it’s her friend) is actively stalking me. And by stalking I mean obsessive checking my account, liking posts, always lurking – and messaging me. I also met her couple of times outside, but she was never trying to approach me, so I let it be. 
Today my stalker found out I am on a wheelchair, and started to write a huge soliloquy about how sorry she is. And me, being my borderline self, and having no self control whatsoever, flipped my lid. Cause it’s my big pet peeve – people saying how sorry they are I am disabled. I wrote her a message, as nice and proper as I could be (which is not much usually, let’s be honest) telling that there’s no need to be sorry because I am happy, and I refuse to be treated as worse.
And she was SOOOOOO SHOCKED. She couldn’t comprehend I could be a wheelchair user – and happy. Happy??? I should be weeping, mourning my lost legs, I should be suicidal and seeking active help.

We all should, shouldn’t we? How many times had you someone expect you to be sad because you are disabled.
Surprise! I am not sad. I am happy. I live a full life, with wonderful friends, great family, travelling, hobbies, nice clothes and pretty makeup and fucking awesome wheelchair gear. I am perfectly okay with being an EDS baby. Sure, there are bad side, a shitload of them. But I am not gonna be stopped by that.
I live with chronic depression, caused by EDS. And I am not gonna be stopped by that either.

We are normal people. We live normal lives. We are happy, we are sad, we are mad, but we’re not mourning the fact we’re spoonies like society expects us to. WE ARE NOT WORSE. We are just as worthy as an abled person. It’s that simple.

I refuse to be told I am supposed to be mourning. Yesterday I got officially diagnosed with EDS hypermobile type 1 or 2. An I am celebrating, cause official diagnosis equals a whole lot of benefits. And yes, I am gonna have heart issues, I am not gonna walk again, I am gonna be in pain my whole life and I am not gonna be able to be who I wanted to be AKA teacher and interpreter cause I’m losing hearing and my hands are in very bad state already. AND I AM HAPPY. It’s May. There are flowers, I have lilacs in my room and I can feed my bunny fresh grass. I am going back to Uni in September and I have a date next week. My hair is long enough for updos and I bought killer pink-ish nail polish. I live. I am gonna live. I am gonna live till my illness kills me, but I am not gonna be sad. I am a person who happened to be born with a bad gene. So is my sister, and so is lots of my friends. And this is not who we are.

I refuse for it to define me. I do define myself as a wheelchair user or EDS baby on social sites, I do, just as I did with BPD and autism before my official diagnosis. It’s simple – easier to find people like me this way, easier to connect. That’s why I have EDS in my tinder profile – as it made me meet a great girl who also has EDS and we probably would never meet irl among thousands of people on streets of the city. But I refuse for my illnesses to decide what I can or cannot do or who I’m gonna be. You can bet your ass I am gonna try that art school before my hurting hands stop me, and I’m gonna try interpreting before I go deaf. And I’m gonna wear short sleeve even though I have huge scars and I’m gonna go out and laugh and smile even though – and BECAUSE – I am on a wheelchair.

And I am not gonna cry cause this is who I am. But there are going to be spoonies who cry. Who mourn. Who are sad and depressed BECAUSE they’re ill. But then they’re gonna go out and be happy. And that’s what I want all you abled folks there to understand. That is what you cannot fathom. We are just as whole as you, and we are just as able to have a range of emotions not connected to our disability as you do.
Cause guess what? We’re people too.

*mic drop*

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