Please, please, stop asking if our mental illness is “cured” — I feel an all-to-familiar wrinkle in my stomach as the conversation shifts to a roundtable sharing of mental health issues — who’s recently taken a mental health day for self-care, who’s sometimes troubled by fleeting anxious thoughts. As each person shares their trial or tribulation, slowly leaving only me who’s…

The COVID-19 pandemic made our lives rigid and frozen. Now (maybe) those jagged edges will begin to melt. Before any lockdowns, mask mandates, even before the spread of SARS-CoV-2 was labeled a pandemic, I’d paid attention. From the first mention I came across on Twitter, early in January 2020, describing…

I have a recurring dream where I’m at the top of an extremely tall building, peering over the edge, every part of my body screaming at me to return to safety. On a few rare occasions, I’ve fallen. …

My family has always cared about our holiday traditions. But will that stay true for Christmas 2020? — November and December have been brutal in the United States, coronavirus-wise. The state my family and I live in, Illinois, is no exception. With far too many people refusing to alter their Thanksgiving plans, families across the region gathered to celebrate the holiday, putting each other and their communities at…

Clear’s new Health Pass program could easily be used to discriminate against disabled people — Biometrics, tools which use individual unchangeable characteristics to verify one’s identity, are being woven into increasingly more areas of our lives. From fingerprints to facial recognition databases, biometric technology is being used on our phones, at airports and other travel centers, and banks. Additionally, it’s easier than ever to track…

Disability Pride Month and the 30th anniversary of the ADA have me reflecting on how my own disabilities have shaped my life & community. — content notes: suicidal ideation July is Disability Pride Month, and this year marks the 30th anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act, or ADA. Finding pride in my disabilities was a long, complicated journey. I had to deconstruct years of internalized ableism that had built up in my brain and…

There’s a lot of talk about the various tests available for COVID-19 and how they can aid us in stopping the spread of the virus. If you’re not a particularly science-y person, figuring out what all these tests do and why they matter might seem daunting. …

In the face of the COVID-19 pandemic and its nearly unchecked spread in the United States, it’s understandably tempting to point fingers at people refusing to wear masks, social distance, and stay home, all measures we know work to curb virus spread. For those of us who are high risk…

“Staying home for this long is so boring, I just can’t spend this much time at home.” I could feel my eyes weaken and blur as I read that status update. My mind wandered back to when I first started getting sick with an autoimmune disease. At the time, I didn’t…