“All bodies are unique and essential. All bodies have strengths and needs that must be met. We are powerful, not despite the complexities of our bodies, but because of them. All bodies are confined by ability, race, gender, sexuality, class, nation state, religion, and more, and we cannot separate them.”
From “What is Disability Justice” (Adapted from Patty Berne’s “Disability Justice – A Working Draft”, Published in Skin, Tooth, and Bone: The Basis of Movement is Our People, A Disability Justice Primer, Second Edition.
As always, we ask that in order to participate in the weekly megathread, one self-identifies as some form of disabled, which is broadly defined in the community sidebar:
“Disability” is an umbrella term which encompasses physical disabilities, emotional/psychiatric disabilities, neurodivergence, intellectual/developmental disabilities, sensory disabilities, invisible disabilities, and more. You do not have to have an official diagnosis to consider yourself disabled.
Mask up, love one another, and stay alive for one more week.
what has worked for me is telling them you don’t have any actual plans to do anything
spoiler
example:
Q: Do you ever feel like harming yourself or want to die?
A: sometimes I just wish I didn’t exist, but I know that would hurt the people who care about me, so I just <take a nap, do a chore, etc> to distract myself, and keep telling myself this feeling is temporary, and that usually works
and if you need help with the distraction part, then maybe try telling them that? like:
A: sometimes I just wish I didn’t exist, but I know that would hurt the people who care about me, so I just <take a nap, do a chore, etc> to distract myself, and keep telling myself this feeling is temporary, and that sometimes works but it’s a struggle, and I wish I had some medication that I could take when I feel like that to help quiet things so I could get my head on straight and remember how much I have to live for
you are so courageous for even trying
I believe in you.
Thank you for the support and advice! I’ve usually done similar, indicating I don’t a plan, and it works. Just when I meet a new person I get nervous.
Well, I’ve not been hospitalized, so that’s a good deal.
I don’t know about your local jurisdiction, but as far as I know they only hospitalise if there’s active ideation and even then it’s on the discretion of the care provider. If you make it clear that it’s passive ideation they have no reason to hospitalise you.
This is usually true, but there was at least one occasion where I went to the “mental health urgent care” because one of my meds was making me severely dehydrated. They referred me to the emergency room, saying they would call ahead and sent a note with me to explain what’s going on. When I got to the ER, they put me in one of the psych rooms and were preparing to send me to the local psych ward. I ended up getting my mom involved and both of us had to fight to keep me from going there and to get them to take my trouble seriously. I agree that most of the time they would only hospitalize for active ideation, but sometimes doctors suck.