CN: Mentions of mental illness, ableism, disability symptoms, and toxic environments As a person who manages a chronic pain and fatigue disability, I’ve had to constantly “push through” my discomfort in order to have any semblance of a life. Sometimes I have aids like my mobility device to make things much easier on me, but …
Continue reading The freedom that comes from saying, “I can’t.”
Note: Kinda sorta spoilery. So, I am “I was a child when A New Hope came out” years old. I have been a massive Star Wars fan all of my life and a proudly self-labelled Star Wars Nerd. As an adult, I manage complex post traumatic syndrome (cPTSD), anxiety, and depression. My mental illness has …
Continue reading Obi-Wan Kenobi is the Mental Health Representation I Really Need Right Now
Most people who interact with me in person or for the past 20+ months, virtually through video conferencing, know me to be a funny, laughing, and cheerful soul. Even these days. And I am knee-deep in depression. Before I go on, I want to let people know I am under the care of a doctor …
My Rejection Sensitive Dysphoria (RSD) has sent me into a tailspin this morning, so I wrote a poem about how it feels, as one does! Please note that these are just my own perceptions while in this headspace. Arr Ess Dee I’ve been inside the funnel the tailspin, the cyclone and I can’t get grounded …
This year has been a roller coaster of awesome and awful. But the awesome is so far winning out! One thing that has been cool is how I’ve been able to virtually attend and participate in writers conferences, and another is being interviewed. Last week, Derek Newman-Stille asked me questions about DisArts, which is art …
I am naturally an upbeat person. I tend to want to have a good time, be silly, and dive into creativity. But 2020 has knocked me on my bottom. If you have been following this blog or my on social media, then you’re aware that I have frozen shoulder, or adhesive capsulitis. I have 24/7 …
As co-editor of the Nothing Without Us anthology, this last few weeks felt as if I were handed the baton in the second-to-final lap of a relay race while I cried, "Oh crap, I need to deliver this to the last runner!" The "last runner" being the final production team at Presses Renaissance Press. However, …
It’s amazing to me how people who deal with mental illness can be stigmatized as being weak, ’cause I’m like, Really? Really, doods? Do you actually have the teensiest clue what it’s like? I manage OCD (obsessive-compulsive disorder) impulses and anxiety. It wasn’t enough for me to have chronic neuropathy throughout my body. I wanted a mental …
Continue reading Choosing ‘The Funny’ While Managing Anxiety
Cait Gordon—author and editor 