It’s so strange
I can never fully express what it’s like living with a tbi and the recovery, nothing ever sounds right, all the words feel wrong.
It’s like I’m transcribing a language dead and gone, all the words I have to say you don’t understand, you don’t have the words for what I felt, you don’t have any conjugations or phrases that equate to my grief. so I’m just left saying,
“It was bad”
"Brain damage" only sounds like a harsh and offensive way to describe brain injuries because people constantly use it as an insult. It's a totally neutral descriptor of what it is. I have brain damage. My brain is damaged. It's not ableist to call it that, it's ableist to call people you don't like brain damaged because you think it's an inherently bad thing to be.
Reminder from someone with actual literal brain damage from a brain injury to stop fucking using "brain damage" and "brain injuries" as a means of describing someone whose opinions you don't like or deem as stupid.
It's ableist and offensive as fuck, and for some reason a lot of leftist people think it's okay to use. I've seen posts replying to right wing racists calling them "brain damaged if you believe this" and "do you have a brain injury? do you not understand X?". Just now I saw a beautiful post about fat people throughout history that was absolutely ruined by opening with "How do we break it to boomers with actual brain damage and nostalgic brainrot..." before continuing to say that fat people existed throughout history.
Brain damage does not make you racist. A brain injury doesn't make you ignorant, or fatphobic, or unaware of history and politics. Stop fucking using my disability as a catch all to describe people you think are shitty. Y'all use it like it's a replacement for how people used to use the R-slur, which shows you learned absolutely nothing about why the R-slur was wrong to use and decided to throw in other disabilities instead. Fuck off and stop doing it.
(And don't do it with other disabilities either, because I know y'all do.)
I know a lot of people with brain injuries. They're smart, and funny, and compassionate. They learn about the world and care about social issues and wish they could go to protests if their disability won't allow them to. Are there right wing people with brain injuries? Sure, absolutely. But they are not right wing because they have a brain injury, and using any disability as an insult is still fucking ableist.
Tldr - stop using brain damage and brain injury as an insult. It's ableist and incredibly offensive.
Love, your local brain injured/brain damaged pal
Is there anyone else who doesn't remember the "before my TBI" time? Like, you were super young (I was eighteen months) when the TBI happened, and there was never really a "before" for you, this has just always been your reality?
happy Pride month ! ! here is your reminder that intensely / severely / big / whatever word wanna use Mentally Disabled people CAN use whatever label/exoression they want because they have the same autonomy as You !
yes this includes Kink
includes Gender
includes HRT
includes Sexuality
includes Romance
includes Neo/Xeno labels
includes those who Can't understand gender sexuality etc because STILL have autonomy to do whatever want
includes EVERYTHING & EVERYONE
!
Something that drives me fucking crazy is when I have trouble with word finding or remembering something, then explain it's just a brain injury problem, and the person responds by saying something like "oh I'm the exact same way!"
You're not the exact same way, if you can read without technology assistance, if you can hold a job, if you can stay verbal 100% of the time, if you don't have to wear an emergency bracelet with your husband's phone number on it any time you leave the house without him, if you can drive a car, etc. It's not the fucking same, stop being an invalidating tool.