There is such a fine line between asking people not to use medical language as a euphemism for a non-medical situation and outright gatekeeping medical language so that undiagnosed folks are afraid to use it and I don't know, I worry about the harm that does.
[medical trauma]
For a lot of people (especially people who are diagnosed as adults), a lifetime of gaslighting means that it is incredibly difficult to accurately or confidently describe a lot of symptoms while seeking diagnosis (or in general).
For a lot of people (especially people who are diagnosed as adults), a lifetime of gaslighting means that it is incredibly difficult to accurately or confidently describe a lot of symptoms while seeking diagnosis (or in general).
[med gaslighting]
It turns out that a lot of people live with *very serious symptoms* that they don't know how to label correctly specifically because everyone has always told them "you don't have [serious symptom]! It's so serious that you would definitely know if you had it!"
It turns out that a lot of people live with *very serious symptoms* that they don't know how to label correctly specifically because everyone has always told them "you don't have [serious symptom]! It's so serious that you would definitely know if you had it!"
And YES, it is true that people use medical language euphemistically and I'm not trying to defend that.
But ALSO, this message that nobody can use illness language unless they're ill, which does the rounds a lot, weirdly ignores the trauma & imposter syndrome in our community.
But ALSO, this message that nobody can use illness language unless they're ill, which does the rounds a lot, weirdly ignores the trauma & imposter syndrome in our community.
And I want to make sure that I say this explicitly: medical bias seriously informs whose symptoms are taken seriously early and who bounces around with no diagnosis for years or decades. Racism, sexism, sanism, classism, and other forms of (intersecting) oppression shape care.
Anyway. I also hate it when people are like "I get it, I'm tired too!" and they clearly have an active work, social & leisure schedule or whatever.
But this conversation takes predictable turns that sometimes get pretty gatekeepy & dog whistly in a way that makes me soapboxy.
But this conversation takes predictable turns that sometimes get pretty gatekeepy & dog whistly in a way that makes me soapboxy.
(also if you followed me relatively recently/don't follow me but you're nodding/possibly crying along thinking "tell me more about how A Lot Of People go through this because I thought I was the only one..." then good news I gave a TEDx talk about this.)
https://twitter.com/bennessb/status/1304127702681690113?s=19
((and uh, if you can comfortably spare a $/£/€ and want to support the work I do collecting stories about the diagnostic process, you can do that on patreon!))
https://twitter.com/bennessb/status/1325535326593486851?s=19
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