What wheelies want to say to walkies
- Wheelie: Hey, you there, with the walking, yes you, do you need any help?
- Wheelie: You walk SO WELL
- Wheelie: Aww, it's so great that your partner stays with you even though you're blonde.
- Wheelie: Look at you, getting out and about. That fresh air is good for you.
- Wheelie: Who do you live with honey? You live ALONE?! Wow. That is so amazing.
- Wheelie: What do you need shoes for? Your feet are perfectly fine.
- Wheelie: I don't think you really need a car. After all you CAN walk.
- Wheelie: You're WORKING?! That is so great. More people should be like you.
- Wheelie: Can you do tricks on those functional legs?
- Wheelie: You need help again? Can't you hold your own bags?
- Wheelie: Why can't you just have a lap?
- Wheelie: I'm so tired of paying for stairs. I'm not even allowed to use them.
- Wheelie: Why should I pay for your parking spots? I can't use them.
- Wheelie: Your life must be SO EASY. You get special perks ALL THE TIME.
i’m sharing a call for help by Aurora Levins Morales, whose book “Getting Home Alive” was the first book by jewish women of color i ever saw or read. it came at a crucial time in my life and my adult identity formation.
recently we have gotten to know each other, and if i may be so bold, become friends. please read this and do what you can to help my friend and one of my heroes. Like many of use she suffers from multiple disabilities and chronic illnesses, both seen and invisible.
“dear communiy—i am entering my 5th week of severe low back pain, and have been unable to leave my bed at all since Sept 27, which means I’m back to diapers for the fist time since 1956. I am slowly healing, with the help of a chiropractor who makes house calls, but need many hours of care a day. In the past few weeks I have used up my health care reserve fund,and have gone from paying for 20 hours a week of attendant care to 14 hours a day, plus $750 in uncovered direct health care costs a week. I may eventually be able to recover some of that, but I have to shell it out now. Every week I get emails thanking me for the impact of my writing on people’s lives, people who don’t know my body is literally coming apart at the pelvis, or that I struggle with chronic illness and poverty every day. I would love to finish my novel, and write my new book about putting our bodies at the center of our liberation work, but to d that, I need you. my community, to help me keep body, mind and spirit together. If you’re able, please send me some money (paypal—aurora @ historica.us) and if you can’t, ask a friend who can to do it for you. Please forward this everywhere. Paste it into emails, get the word out to the people who already love what I do, and the one who would if they knew about it. Thanks.”
Neurofeedback.
How it works, i.e. Neurofeedback and PTSD:
A computer records EEG activity (brain wave patterns) using electrodes pasted on the scalp surface.This non-invasive “listening” device is painless and comfortable. In conventional NF, an assessment of the EEG activity is done. This allows the neurotherapist to determine the pattern of training that will be most beneficial for the individual. The computer is then adjusted so that it creates a musical tone as the person begins to generate more of the desirable brain rhythms. This “neuro-feed-back” literally guides the person to a more and more calm state. Clients begin to feel a tremendous sense of empowerment as they take back what they were deprived of by the trauma — a good night’s sleep, feelings of calm and confidence, and a general sense of well-being.
The results of controlled studies, as well as clinical experience with this therapy have been tremendously encouraging. People who have been suffering from PTSD for ten and twenty years are often completely relieved of their symptoms. Follow-up testing has shown that the person becomes markedly less anxious, depression is reduced or eliminated, and the person is generally more comfortable and relaxed. The power of the traumatic incident is removed, reducing an all-consuming experience to a simpler factual memory. Release from trauma means regaining one’s life.
I will be posting my Neurofeedback diaries here. They are old (by a month or two), but I want people to know how AWESOME this shit is. Within 2 WEEKS I no longer:
1. Had nightmares
2. Had flashbacks
3. Had anxiety attacks that I could not talk myself down from
What does it mean to be “productive”?
As someone who has struggled with life-long depression, and other problems that cause a depletion of spoons, one of the ways that I’ve shamed myself most is with this idea of…
I will use the funds to make copies and distribute the zine far and wide. I want to put it in every info shop (activist bookstore) and zine library around North America and possibly every English speaking country around the world because many JUST. DON’T. CARRY. zines on disabilities. This zine includes:
44 pages of awesome (plus cover)
Images by basiL, billie rain, J.C. Garske, Leslie Balch & Sasha Smithy, Jessie, Burrow, & Sadie Sicko
POEMS:
Helium by Kristin Allen-Zito
Art Viewing by J.C. Garske
Untitled by Trouble
ARTICLES:
Handicap Nazi by Christy Leigh Stewart
Applying for Disability by Trouble
No pause, no break, no end by Meeresbande
Disability in the Movement: Including the Invisible by Comrade Canary
Acquiring a Service Dog in the USA by Morgan atunheardofsongs.tumblr.com
It’s Not You, It’s Them by Michele Kaplan
A Dog with PTSD saves an owner with PTSD by Burrow
Accessible Design by Paula Bergman
Making Spaces Accessible to People with Invisible Disabilities collected and edited by Burrow
LARGE PRINT FORMAT (i.e. FULL SHEET ENLARGED TEXT) AVAILABLE UPON REQUEST.
PDF files available.
Still accepting submissions from the disabled for the next zine! Message me for details!
A MILLION TIMES THIS! And here I was thinking I was the only one.
