Inspired by something I read in a comments section

(And yes, I know one should never read comment sections on…most anything, these days, but lo, I am occasionally weak)

People who have a disability–whether it’s a physical, medical, cognitive, or mental health issue–get to choose how they talk about having that disability. And they even get to decide whether or not they see it as a disability. If they prefer to say “I am bipolar” instead of “I have bipolar disorder,” that’s their choice, their right to deal with it on their own terms. Sometimes people use wording interchangeably; sometimes I say “I have diabetes” and sometimes I say “I’m diabetic.” My thing, my choice in how I call it.

If you see some use the “I’m __” construction and you don’t have that “__”, you don’t get to “correct” them and tell them to use person first language; you really shouldn’t tell someone how to word their relationship to whatever they may live with even if you do have that same thing.

And either way, you really, really should not ever chunk in the words “suffer from”. Because that shows your ableist ass even more than “correcting” someone about how they should talk about what they live with.

And while you’re at it, stop pitting physical and mental illnesses against each other. It’s gross. They both get told a lot of the same shit–I know this, because I live with both (type 1 diabetes and anxiety and depression). A lot of people live with both, and get thrown all kinds of bullshit because of both.

So do not do this.