Thread by @AutSciPerson

This might sound like something one shouldn't admit,

But do you ever feel bitter watching people have a temporary injury who then recover completely without pain?

I feel like it's treated like a "phase"

while my permanent, mundane foot injury is the rest of my life.

A temporary understandable injury is something that people have sympathy for, attention, care.

Permanent injuries, chronic illness, eventually people just get annoyed, why can't you do X/Y/Z, you navigate the world differently forever. You can't do the things you did before.

I only realized this when I crashed my bike and hurt my shoulder. Things that make sense people don't mind.

When you tell them your surgery to decrease/get rid of your pain with walking, they just look at you saying "there's really nothing that can do?" completely stunned.

*surgery to decrease/get rid of your pain with walking didn't work,

The worst part to me is that temporary injuries that heal are acceptable to share publicly. People care, and get congratulated that they "leveled up."

But when disabled people talk about their disabilities, even if it impacts their entire lifetime, it's seen as attention-seeking

It's only a burden to other people of there's a time limit on their help.

If there's not.. If you don't "get better"... You have to deal with everyone else's feelings about having a permanent disability too. Everyone's expectations. Everyone's fears. Everyone's frustrations.

I understand that temporary injuries can still have effects on your life. But I see people treat it as if it is some sort of test of will that they got through or being so grateful to people supporting them.

But for some of us that's our baseline forever.

When I see those posts I think "how many people would still support you if you couldn't do X/Y/Z your whole life instead of for 1-4 months?"

I see the clear internalized ableism that if it were permanent, they would feel like a burden and feel useless.

It simply reminds me that people in society, including abled people with temporary injuries that heal, still think of disabled people as lesser than. That they have higher status because they will once again be an abled person& only abled people can be valuable.

It may not be what abled people think they're saying, but that is what disabled people are seeing. That is what the impact of your words mean to us when you are "back to normal."

You get to be grateful and get back to your life like usual, like it never happened.