Tag Archives: medical model of disability

A Poem Called “I am just like you “

I am just like you,

(Initially this poem was entitled a different name, but I changed the poem title. I changed the title of the poem because as a disabled person myself, I need to be careful with my own internalized ableism as all of us disabled people have internalized ableism to deal with all the time. The original title was using my own internalized ableism to try to use a word that society uses toward disabled people like myself all the time, but and say I am not that. Society uses disabled people to accept internalized ableism so that disabled people can accept the ableism of society. This is an issue most of us in the disability community have to battle with in societies including the western societies. Thank you for reading this site and enjoying reading my poems.)

by theamazinJ

I can think for myself,
I have a mind of my own,
I am a master of myself,
I am a filmmaker,
I am an artist,
I am a poet,
I am a person,
I am not less than what you think,
I am an independent citizen,
I need support like everyone else,
I am capable even though I am disabled,
disability does not mean I am hidden from society,
disability does not mean I cannot say “I am disabled and proud”
disability does not mean my voice does not matter,
disability does not mean I can’t do anything,
disability means I need to structure my supports
and build a supported decision making agreement
between my supporters
as myself being the decision maker
like you and you and you in the world.
I disagree with people
as much as I agree,
I do not agree with you on some things,
but I agree on other things,
and that’s okay.
I can speak out on what I believe and feel
an that’s ok because it’s how I feel
and it does not mean
I am too easily influenced or ‘brainwashed’
because being ‘brainwashed’ is not even a thing,
it is a social construction, it is not even real,
and it is figure of speech of
someone’s imagination to make a person seem crazy,
to make a person feel disregarded as a person,
and to not allow a person to take responsibility for their choices
even if the person felt at the time
to choose something for their own self-care,
even if it was for their own way of
making meaning with the world,
my own way of growing and maturing
and doing things on my own,
to get to an understanding of what
I can do without the world telling me otherwise
as if I need to always be told
as if I am child and not the adult that I am.
Presuming competence is so important,
it is so liberating for everyone
because the social model of disability
is not about discrediting medicine,
it is about self-determination
it’s about de-stigmatizing what the medical model did,
so disabled people make their decisions
and using accommodations even it is from medicine
to help a person live their life,
even if they need other accessibilities
to do this as well,
even if many do not understand the
social model of disability,
that’s ok, but please don’t discredit it,
don’t discredit an individual’s right to make decisions
based on how they may feel at the time,
allow leeway in may be taking responsibility
for why the individual chose that decision at the time,
may be it wasn’t all about the individual’s behavior
maybe it could have been the way
the individual felt from the behavior
of the people around them.
Relationships are a two way street.
Everything that happens is never one sided,
it is never the fault of one person,
everyone can always take responsibility for
every decision that is made by an individual.
There is a reason why things happen,
and sometimes that reason needs to be known,
sometimes the reason is projected on the decision maker
because the other people don’t want to
feel bad or don’t want to know they might have done
something wrong.
There is never what someone did was wrong
like there is never what someone did was right.
Every decision we make is something we did
from how we felt at the time.
Everywhere we go, every decision we make,
are decisions that may have been
tough for us to make,
but it was decisions from our path
to help us grow,
to help us mature,
and to help us further our destiny
to live our life.
Every decision any individual makes
is by how we felt
and whoever was around the individual at that time
including the individual
who needs to take responsibility for that decision.
Take responsibility for yourself
and most importantly take responsibility
for every other person as a decision maker
regardless of who the person is or was
even if person is disabled or
even if the person is non-disabled.
It’s not all about you or them,
it’s all about the decision that was made.

A Poem Called “To Please Yourself is to not think of anyone else”

To Please Yourself is to not think of anyone else,

by theamazinJ

It’s my life,
and no one else’s,
it’s my life,
even when people disagree,
it’s my life,
even if anyone disagrees with me
my whole life too,
it’s my life,
I choose things in my life
for a reason,
as an activist,
as a person who is
committed to human rights,
disability justice,
self-determination,
and with the rights
everyone has of supported decision making.
As a person who
does not like
the way the world is today
from the many discriminations
and injustices that are serving
everyone living today.
From the ideas of
the way society uses
the medical model
to hurt so many people,
and the way
everyone hurts,
not everyone understanding each other,
that because of this
there is disability culture
separate from non-disability culture
and because of this
I saddened to know
that from the two different cultures
not understanding each other,
universal design is not realistic,
and too ideal,
because there are
too many non-disabled people
who think of only themselves
and there are
too many disabled people
that are angry about this,
that can this war over words
really end?
can this war over words really end?
The war over words,
eventually leads to violence,
eventually leads to a tougher life,
and eventually leads to
everyone learning the hard way.
Our lives are good,
as human beings
we have the ability to love,
we have the ability to understand each other,
we have what it takes to serve justice for all,
but many do not want justice,
many are too complacent,
too complicit,
and many just want to live in LaLaLand,
while many just want to think about the medical model
without considering life
and what living life really is like,
even when someone gets a diagnosis,
even when someone seeks surgeries
for that diagnosis,
or even alternative treatments.
Some of these treatments
are imperative and can be fatal if not treated,
while other treatments
are a choice from the person, the individual,
to live their life treated to
live under the current social construction
as who they are without seeking to pass,
or live their life different than who they are
choosing to seek treatment to
pass and please people in society.
Everyone has their choices to make,
the ultimate choice is,
please yourself or please others,
and whatever you please,
there are consequences and rewards,
you just have weigh in on
the choice that best fits your life,
but remember this,
even when you are anxious over this decision,
asking too many people what to do,
and not relaxing and letting things happen,
you still must please yourself regardless.

HOLIDAY SPECIAL: A Presentation on Autistic Artifacts from my project partner and I in “Disability and Embodiment” Class

TRIGGER Warning for everyone: We had used artifacts that were a part of the medical and charity models of disability towards the end of the presentation. This was only to show that they are artifacts too even though we all disagree with them.

I hope everyone enjoys the presentation my project partner from class did with me. We worked really hard as capturing the highlights of the many positive aspects of Autistic culture and the social model of disability!!!

Hopefully I can finally start Graduate School for next year 😀 It would only help me even more!!!!

Flapplauding always and Please ENJOY your HOLIDAY Present from me to you!!!!!

OUT, J

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Always Remember It’s Okay to Feel what we Feel as Individuality

Being who I am, I am easily swayed to think one way or the other. Organizations like Autism Speaks and the media know how to easily manipulate people to think their opinion is the right opinion. No opinion is wrong, but we need to be more intuitive as a World Wide theme. Are psychiatrists seeking a cure for autism? Many just say they are seeking to help the individuals live their life better. Helping is good, but no person or group of people can overtly talk against a certain culture to eradicate them. Society needs to give everyone their choice of living their life without suggesting or influencing with the most highly visible mainstream media. I hear people say we should switch to the Social Model of Disability, however I feel that there should be a balance between both models. I do believe some people need medication, but not everyone. There are people who believe in medication because those people feel they need to change behaviors. Many people who have severe anxiety, obsess, have severe depression, hallucinate, think with delusions, thought insertions, and/or feel unbalanced with moods. Reality is what we create for ourselves, so a person needs to create a reality that fits them best as a individual.

A person with unbalanced moods like in people with Manic-Depression can be very creative. However, what is the fine line between creations a person who is Bipolar does and how the person can live a functional life with no severe depressive or manic states? If we didn’t have these types of conditions or even autism, would we be able to be creative or be inventive? Are these emotions really helping us make the world a better place? It’s important to remember to give everyone the attention they deserve, but guiding them to not take it to extremes. Although we need creative and inventive thinking!

Life is a common core of who we are and what we want to be. There are many people these days in my observations who have manipulative, narcissistic egos that do not correlate with being human. ‘Selfies’ have become extremely popular these days sort of the most popular thing where people are simply obsessed with how they look and show there face to the world. Intuition is having the capacity for love, understanding, and compassion for everyone in the way we come in contact with the communities we live in. It seems as if simply ‘being human’ has lost it’s image of intuitive feelings because many people generally are obsessed with themselves.

We are all born as a small baby who constantly learns. Intuition is taught at a very early age. Everyone is intuitive, everyone has empathy, and everyone can learn to be the person they want to become one day. Although in life, there is not always enough support of everyone to be able to become that Adult they want to be. That is when emotions and feelings swirl inside of a person where anger rises, fear scares us, or pain makes us cry depending on the situation. Any one in the disability community has needs and wants like those in the non-disabled community. People need a connection from a person who can teach them to become the person they always wanted to be. Unfortunately, even when becoming that person, we are still a bunch of swirling emotions/feelings because that’s what being human really means.

Once we find ourselves, secure our mission, and balance our emotions is when we can move on to the next level. May be being Autistic or having any disability is a gift where it’s supposed to teach everyone else to be more intuitive. However, may be those like myself who are Autistic or have another disability, don’t need connection so much as to needing to help others have connection. Society needs to give Disabled people more credit and not treat us like we are a tragedy. There are many people on the autistic spectrum who were never given the chance to speak up, be their own person, and learn in school. Some of society gives up on them because they feel some people are not worth it.

There are many others who actually do teach any one. However, it’s not as many as there are. There are many different ways to teach a person and the education system needs to gear more toward every body, not just a standard normal way. Because we all can teach each other.

To those people who suggest recovery or cure of autism, they need to remember what they are going to be eradicating. If we eradicate autistic culture like most of society is suggesting, then we are going to rid the world of disability, things we are enjoying, emotions, feelings, pain, and learning more about humanity. When watching the movie, The Giver, and reading the book too, I am noticing that if we wipe out what we are trying to delete, we no longer feel anything, be creative, and invent.

It’s time for society to remember that it’s okay to feel, to have pain, and to have a disability. Thus, disability is a part of the human experience and so is autism as a disability too! Don’t ever forget any one can easily fall into and out of the disability community at any point in their life. Being Autistic is a culture that needs accepting too as well as all disabilities!

OUT, J

The Disability community needs services to ensure success in life

Either we have services or we don’t have services, but what happens when we do or don’t have services…

It’s a CATCH-22!

Needing services and using the services:

1) Not having your own voice
2) Having your needs always met as a dependent for life
3) Being pitied with despair
4) Not having your own way of doing things accomplished with self-determination
5) Always being spoken to as a child

Not having/using services:

1) Being told you have to do everything on your own
2) Not having certain minimal services you need
3) Being told you don’t have a disability or you are not Autistic, etc.
4) struggling keeping up with everyday life skills
5) being told you are so-called ‘normal’ or just like everyone else

Either way it is a struggle for a Disabled person to live their life needing or not needing services. So, when is society going to understand disability? Society needs to give people who need the services the necessary things to ensure self-determination for success. Services are very important for my peers and I.

The social model of disability goes unnoticed because many people in the world look at the medical model as the key component in helping the disability community. Yet, the medical model of disability does not allow others to work with self-determination because medical professionals treat the disability rather than the person. They try behaviorist methods and medicine without having the person work on their own terms toward success. Society seems to not expect a Disabled person to live the way a Able person or Non-Disabled person can.

Every one has every right to be involved in their treatment plans whether they have a documented disability or not. Everybody has their own mind, their own body, and their own soul which gives them the strength to live their life. Many times due to many of society’s many people who we interact with, have dealt with abuses, neglect, and/or bullying which hurt self-esteem. In my opinion, this could be the reason why the medical model is continuously used to treat the disorder/disability rather than the person. The medical model also adapted thinking where everyone labels each other with something. This is called Eugenics.

Once society accepts disability, society will understand how to react to it and engage with those who have a disability much better.

Let’s start learning and finally accepting disability in Humanity!

OUT, J