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I have physical health problems; I have mental health problems.

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I have complex PTSD from medical trauma.

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It is super traumatic to go through the medical system undiagnosed.

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It is also traumatic to go through it as a queer person.

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I am a trans, non-binary person.

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And I am also queer in my sexuality as well.

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And going through the medical system that way was difficult.

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And because of those experiences, or however it happens on the brain,

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I also have anxiety and depression.

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So this quarantine is really really affecting my mental health.

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I feel like I reverted in my mental health, like, I took three years back in steps

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in my mental health progress within the month.

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When the quarantine happened, our services for disabled people in their homes were cut.

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So, I don't have any way to do laundry. I am walking pretty well right now,

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which is nice, but in a few hours, I will need my walker.

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And in a few more hours, I will only be able to use my wheelchair.

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And because of that, that increases the stress, the anxiety and decreases the self-worth.

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When you look over and you see a giant pile of laundry that you can't do yourself.

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Canada has decided to give people who are laid off 2000 Dollars a month

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And is not changing anything about the disability system

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except giving us a one time emergency fund of 100 Dollars

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because that's going to go real real far.

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It makes me feel so devalued in my society.

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Our triage protocols are that if you have a chronic illness or an intellectual disability,

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you are considered lower on the list for a ventilator.

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Literally causing eugenics.

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And that has really impacted my mental health.

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Knowing that if I do get this, I won't get the ventilator.

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The medical health complex is ableist, racist, and anti-indigenous itself.

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But it is literally telling me that it is more advantageous for them that I should die,

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just because I have a disability.

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...that we are systematically devalued.

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That our life is considered less than yours

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in the way the system is built, in the way the system is practiced,

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and in the way, many people treat us.

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And even in the way that you may subconsciously be treating the people in your life around you.

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And right now, we are particularly sensitive to those things.

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So if you are talking to a disabled person right now and you say something that

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usually doesn't get you a little quip back but you are getting a quip back from us on that

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because you said something that wasn't okay, we are going to be quicker to correct you right now.

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Because we are under attack.

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And this is not an attack on you.

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It's an attack on the way that we as a society talk, interact and include disabled people.

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And if by doing that we have to attack language, it may seem like we are attacking a person,

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but impact and intent are different.

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And if you have caused an impact that was not your intent,

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hear what the person is actually saying.

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Hear that your intent was genuine and wonderful but that your impact was different.

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Change the behavior and go on. And if we can all continue to choose to do that,

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and choose to do that in a loving way, and in a way where we forgive each other for

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when we get too fiery, or when we do something that is truly wrong,

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like put in a freaking triage plan that says that we don't get a ventilator,

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we can just say that we are sorry and fix it.

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That's what I'd like abled-bodied people to know.

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You can just say sorry and fix it.