Thread by @shaunjlawson

Now for a thread about identity which, for once, has nothing to do with trans or women's issues. Other than that plenty of women and trans people will have the conditions I'm about to discuss.

I'm writing about this because I think the well-intentioned left often gets this wrong

I'm asthmatic and dyspraxic. I had a huge, terrifying asthma attack when I was 4 and was rushed to hospital. At 6, I remember going to the school nurse every morning break to get my treatment. But with inhalers, it faded.

I still have it, but medication makes all the difference.

I'm also dyspraxic. I was diagnosed when I was 12.

My parents, in their infinite wisdom, disagreed with the diagnosis and told neither me nor my school - despite having sent me for comprehensive tests to begin with!

I only discovered the diagnosis by accident, when rummaging through old family papers aged 22. Of course, I'd always known something was really wrong with my hand-eye coordination and so on - but this was an important discovery and led to certain, um, *discussions* with my folks.

If I and my school had known, I'd have received double time in all my exams.

If I and my school had known, I wouldn't have been bullied, shouted at, publicly humiliated and frankly, abused by the worst CDT teacher ever. An appalling man named Mr Benbow.

If I and my school had known, a whole bunch of science teachers wouldn't have assumed I wasn't trying and therefore blamed me when I found that subject incredibly difficult.

GCSE Grade F in Physics remains one of my proudest non-achievements.

Basically, if I and my school had known, I'd likely have been a happier child and not felt so often like I was an idiot.

How does my dyspraxia affect me now? In the following ways:

- I am the worst cook in the entire world. You would not believe the mess I make; I'm basically a walking fire hazard if I ever try cooking for myself.

- I can't wire a plug

- I can't put appliances together

- I type like a wildebeest with a drink problem

- I'm physically awkward and very clumsy. I can be relied on to spill things in my apartment all the bloody time

- I struggle with changing lightbulbs, but not all of them

- My handwriting is absurdly small and impossible to read

- I can't use touchscreens. Really, I can't!

- I can't open supermarket plastic bags even if my life depends on it. If you've ever been stuck in a queue waiting in exasperation for someone to open said bag... well, I'm THAT GUY.

- I can't even whisk an egg. I am not making that up!

It's because my wrist won't bend (no laughing at the back now...)

- I can't use an iphone or Android because of the touchscreen issue

- I find keeping my place clean EXTREMELY challenging and thank the good lord every day for my amazing cleaner. Who is inclusive in my rent.

And yet, despite all of the above, and other things besides, I've learnt to manage it. And despite all of the above, I would never describe myself as 'disabled'.

That's despite asthma and dyspraxia being recognised as disabilities.

Do I understand why they are? Sure. It's just that I think it's all about the extent of something, the severity of it.

But here's the thing. Some people on the left actually find my not defining myself as 'disabled'... offensive.

I know this because someone I had a huge amount of time for (and still do) and has a big following on here actually BLOCKED me. For this reason!

His view being, of course, that my public comments meant I was downplaying these conditions more generally. Not my intention.

My view of my asthma and my dyspraxia (and my clinical depression too: I've been taking anti-depressants since 2015, they do a great job) is simple. I manage them. I don't let them define me as a person and I never will.

And where I think the left keeps getting it wrong is...

... This endless desire to define other people against their wishes and in the face of who they are.

To categorise and pigeonhole and label seemingly everyone under the sun: often through things they aren't responsible for too (eg. 'privilege' of one sort or another).

Because you see, my asthma, dyspraxia and depression have been for me to deal with. My body, my health, my conditions, my life.

But we all have shit to deal with. All of us. And my shit isn't more or less important than anyone else's. Doesn't make me 'special' either.

Apparently, according to some, I'm somehow in the wrong for not viewing myself as 'special' because I have these conditions; and not defining myself around them!

Here's what I think about that. I think any term which treats my situation as somehow equivalent in any way to:

- Quadriplegia
- Someone with Down's syndrome
- Someone with ALS/MND
- Someone with Parkinson's
- Someone with Alzheimer's
- Someone who's deaf
- Someone who's blind
- Someone in a wheelchair
- And many many other forms of disability

Is monumentally offensive... to them.

I'm lucky. Thanks to medication and the way the world now is (working from home by myself thanks to the internet, for example), I've been able to manage my conditions. Which therefore DON'T disable me.

Huge numbers of disabled people don't enjoy such fortune.

And their treatment by the UK government since 2010 has been one of the most disgusting, monstrous atrocities ever known in Britain. And shamefully ignored by most.

So sure, I see what the left is trying to do. It's trying to spread awareness and be 'inclusive'.

Of course spreading awareness of all these conditions and many more besides (certainly including asthma, dyspraxia and depression) is absolutely a good thing. A vital thing.

But seeking to label and define others goes too far. And it's everywhere in identity politics right now.

Even huge numbers of people with those disabilities I named above do not define themselves solely by them at all.

Because however much the disabilities are part of them and their lives, they as people are much more than that. We're ALL more than labels.

Incidentally, that's not to downplay the severity of and suffering caused by those conditions, and many others, in any way at all.

It is to say that we're all individuals. And that instead of becoming more 'inclusive', all that's happening is we're being divided more and more.