Me: I’m chronically ill which makes me disabled. I managed to adjust my life so I can live as comfortably as possible, which means I don’t work, being poor, and not doing much. Sometimes I have to sleep all day, sometimes I go on hikes with my dog, sometimes I exist, sometimes I want to kill myself. That’s my life and I’m okay with it.
Ppl: BbUuuTTt — ThAt soUndS dEpreSSinNngG!
Ppl: buTtT — I COulDn'TttT lIvE liKe thIsS!
Ppl: BbuUUTtTtT — iSn’T tHEre ANyThiNg THaT caNn bE DoNe tO chAnGe YOur depREssIng stAte?
Ppl: bUuuUtT — LivE iS abOUt LIVING, NOT EXISTING!
Ppl: buTT — hOw cAn yOu LIvee LikE tHat?
Ppl: buTttTTTTT — DoNt be So neGaTiVe, if IT wAsS mE, I WouLd bE mORe HopEFuLl, That thEre WiLL Be a CuRe, AND My dePreSsIng LIfesTyLe WoUlD eNd.
Ppl: BUttT — YOure SUCH AN INSPIRATION!!! I wOuLdvE kIlleD MYsElf By NoW!
Me: Well, at this point we should think about who is the really negative person in this conversation.
Ppl:
Ppl:
Ppl:
Ppl: Yeah, no, you’re negative, saying you’re disabled is negative, disability is okay in and of itself, but don’t call yourself disabled, because that’s so negative, not having goals and not accomplishing anything in life is a wasted life, contributing to society is important, you’re so poor for not seeing how you’re wasting your life, you should really try to change something, although I admire you, because I would have killed myself by now, just saying.
I like to have this saved in my phone so I can show friends, family, or random people who are curious to understand the spoon theory and for them to get a better understanding of what we have to do/think about every day.
[Image Description 1: Comic, digital art cartoon style. To the left is a blue character and to the right is a red character. “People are sick!” Blue yells with a concerned expression and a sweat drop forming. “People are hypochondriacs!” Red yells back while rolling their eyes with an annoyed vein next to their eye. Below a tiny purple arrow points to two dots.]
[Image Description 2: “PEOPLE! ARE! SICK!!!” Blue yells, their brow furrowed. “PEOPLE! ARE! HYPOCHONDRIACS!!!!!” Red yells back in their face. The purple arrow pointing to to dots is slightly larger, unnoticed by Blue and Red.]
[Image Description 3: The words “PEOPLE ARE SICK)(HYPOCHONDRIACS” are extremely large, in a motion blur as they swirl around the yelling heads of Blue and Red. Their heads against each other like a yin-yang symbol, eyes budging, saliva dripping. Below the purple arrow is bigger and we can see the dots are silhouettes.]
[Image Description 4: Below the purple arrow are two characters. On the left, a short character, tan skin, wearing blue pants, an oversized sweat-shirt with a heart mirrored by an upside down heart. Their head is half shaved and half short, curly, pale indigo color. They look shocked and annoyed, bags under their eyes.“Has a degenerative condition that took 5 years to get diagnosed” is written above their head.
To the right, a girl nervous hold her hands in front of her chest, tears in her eyes, sad and frightened expression. She has on light green pains and a dark green tang-top dress shirt that ends above her navel. She has deep purple hair, long that fans out behind her head, and micro-bangs. Above her head “Has hypochondria, now called Somatic Symptom Disorder or Illness Anxiety Disorder.]
[Image Description 5:"Hey-” The short character says to the girl, their face still looking annoyed. “Yes?” Our hypochondriac responds startled, pupils tiny, forehead blue, and sweat forming on her arms. Afraid she’s about to be ridiculed for her anxiety disorder.]
[Image Description 6: The short character holds out a hand towards our hypochondriac, looking more relaxed. “Ya wanna get away from this noise and learn how to support each other in healthy ways?” They say. Turns out they have resting annoyed face, making them difficult to read. Hypo is more relaxed, but still has her hands to her chest nervously, her body closed off, more sweat, tears still in her eyes, looking at the short person.]
[Image Description 7: A close up of our hypochondriac. Covered in sweat, her pupils shrinking again as she processes what the short character proposed. She did not expect a person with a physical illness to see her as someone who wasn’t an enemy- to see her as more than just a person who made it more difficult for those with rare disorders to receive diagnosis or be taken seriously, or to be treated with respect and even love. She’s not smiling, but she is blushing as a sense of trust takes hold.]
[Image Description 8: *sniff* “I would love that.” Our hypochondriac says, now smiling and taking the hand of the also blushing short character.]
[Image Description 9: They fly into the sky holding hands, a rainbow trailing behind them. *Ghibli type music starts to play* *laughter of relief* They are pretty far away from us now. “I think I’m getting altitude sickness” our hypochondriac says, the short person responding “That might actually be happening, we’ll go lower.”]
[Image Description 10: Downward at the bottom of the rainbow in script font are the words “Have fun with your word wars, ya Butts!”. Blue and Red have their backs to us as their looking at it. “What do you think those people were talking about?” says Blue, to which Red says “No idea. Wasn’t listening.”]
