5:24am July 14, 2013

➸ Trying to find the right words: it disturbs me that...

…people think that people who live in nursing homes and other institutions aren’t really people…

…and that they aren’t all there…

…and are empty shells that aren’t really people anymore…

…and that what really matters is how their relatives feel about what’s happening to them…

…or what they…

Yes yes yes yes yes.

That’s everything that horrifies me about the worst of cognitive ableism in a nutshell.

What’s even worse is actually being treated like that. Some people already treat me like that. It scares the shit out of me when I realize it’s happening.

There was also a period in my life when lots of people treated me like the real me was dead, and I was just like… a body, but not me anymore. Many of whom had never known me as I am, only as they imagined I was, and then they mourned the imaginary person who never existed to begin with, and talked about wanting the old me back.

“Don’t Mourn For Us” was written about another variant on this phenomenon.

But if you’ve never been mourned as if you were dead-but-alive, when all that had happened was the real person you were being unmasked… it’s a real mindfuck. And it makes you feel horrible about yourself.

I know you’re talking about a somewhat different situation, but there are still similarities. And it’s still a while mountain of WTF.

Notes: