#the medicalization of mental health is just capitalism trying to cover its ass

[hussyknee]

Idk if there's enough people talking about what a gigantic energy drain Complex PTSD is. It's not just one single traumatic event, it's having lived in a traumatic situation for a long time. And in the case of child abuse, your entire formative life period. Everything is a trigger, anxiety is your default, and your brain keeps trying to keep you safe by yelling at you about everything you're doing "wrong", which will lead to pain. Your brain is a constant war zone, braced for attack, rarely relaxed, at least some part of you always hypervigilant. The stress it takes on your body is insane. It's why trauma is linked to autoimmune issues, heart disease, type 2 diabetes, and, according to one study, cancer.

Physical disability leaves you even more vulnerable and less able to live up to the impossible standards of control and "correct" behaviour your brain insists on, not to mention the free gift given to all patients of chronic illness that is medical gaslighting and patient-blaming, all of which simply compounds the trauma. Reduced physical and mental health obviously leads to systemic risk factors such as inability to pursue academic and professional qualifications, poverty and financial struggle, malnutrition, becoming unhoused or bad living conditions, exacerbated medical issues and further lack of medical resources, reliance on welfare and care networks, and becoming trapped in codependent, abusive or toxic relationships. The knock-on effects are endless.

This is all to say— if you're wondering why you can't seem to do more than the bare minimum every day when you haven't been diagnosed with a physical illness, or you're "not that disabled", or you think your symptoms are "just psychosomatic" (which means your brain is under so much intolerable stress that it's started taking a chair to the windows and destroying the furniture just to get you to NOTICE AND MAKE IT STOP): the answer is that your body is actually struggling under the kind of stress that kills trained soldiers and disables them for life. So stop trying to convince yourself that you're just not trying hard enough when what you really, desperately need to get your life on track is community, care, rest and ease.

#the medicalization of mental health is just capitalism trying to cover its ass #isolating physical and mental illness makes the entire medical complex an abject failure actually #''disease'' should refer to a state of being rather than its outcome imo #i've never heard of one that wasnt simply the visible symptom or ramification of the core problem or situation #like I'm grateful for the anti-depressants and bipolar meds and all but i just think a lot more problems would be solved #if someone gave me a place to live with peace and quiet and living assistance #i mean I'd still need the meds its not either/or #but I wouldn't need to be on ever increasing doses for the rest of forever #also if there was some kind of holistic understanding of health that bridged psychiatry with the fest of the medical complex #they could have taken one look at how badly I broke down at age twenty and worked to prevent my inflammatory disease being triggered #or at least not gaslit me about it for seven years until i nearly lost a colon #you just absolutely bloody cannot treat health as separate from socioeconomics and community support #this shouldn't be new or revolutionary #actually cptsd #complex ptsd #ableism #disability #healthism #child abuse #emotional abuse #domestic abuse #intimate partner violence #parental abuse #chronic illness #spoonie #knee of huss #mental illness #autoimmune disease #social justice #psychosomatic

[therachelperspective]

BOOK | Landwhale: On Turning Insults Into Nicknames, Why Body Image is Hard, and How Diets Can Kiss My Ass by Jes Baker

This is the first book I picked up and actually finished in over a year.

I just need to sit with that statement for a moment.

🤔

The reality of this still baffles me. That I could not partake in something I thoroughly enjoy (reading a book) for over a year. At the start of the pandemic (early 2020), something in me just... broke, and I couldn’t do anything anymore – which is the sad reality of why I’ve hardly had any new content on The Rachel Perspective in a long time. But alas, something about Landwhale spoke to me. Jes Baker spoke to me.

One of my first book reviews on here was Jes Baker’s Things No One Will Tell Fat Girls back in 2016. It was also, I believe, my first body positivity piece of literature I ever read AND my post to date with the most likes/reblogs to its name. It was many things, but the important fact was that I loved it. It was a great book that solidified aspects of my own personal journey with my self-image, beyond what I had already achieved on my own. But what Things No one Will Tell Fat Girls did from a self-help and statistical aspect (it was, after all, subtitled as a “guide”), Landwhale instead approaches from the more cold-hearted truths of being a fat girl. Where her debut novel was chalk full of lists and ways to help yourself love your body, the sophomore novel delves into the reality that existing in this world – for everyone – is actually really f*cking hard.

At the beginning of Landwhale, Jes includes a trigger warning. For the whole book. While I fortunately did not really feel any triggered responses from the topics she discussed take heed of the trigger warning, I fully understand how a lot of the material could be unnerving. This time around, it wasn’t just another “I’m a fat girl, hear me roar” set of essays about the struggles every fat girl has come to experience time and time again. You know, those usual struggles with clothing/fashion, bullies, etc. Here, instead – and seriously, I applaud Jes so so much for this – she covers the mental health side of the struggles more in depth, like the self-deprecation, the problems that arise within the fat community itself, the doubts and fears when in a relationship (especially when your significant other is smaller in stature). Things No One Will Tell Fat Girls skimmed the surface of the basic troubles of a plus-size individual and her approaches to combating those issues; Landwhale, however, dove more deeply into that tough material. But honestly, I’m so glad she did this. It all needs discussing because, truthfully, so many people struggle with these things – myself included. And because has a background in mental health work, having been employed as a psychosocial rehabilitation specialist and is a credentialed peer support specialist and educator (in the state of Arizona)... well, needless to say, I trust what she says. Jes has proved time and time again that she not only lives the plus-size life and can speak from years of experience, she also is invested in helping others enough that she does this kind of work for a living. And maybe because I did feel like I related so much to Jes throughout Landwhale, it could be that I have some unrealized traumas that I never truly understood until now. Maybe the things people say around me (or to me) in relation to their bodies, to this day, still have a negative effect on my psyche despite any self-proclaimed positive, good-standing view towards my own body. Learning moment, y’all.

Although geared toward and obviously best suited for the fat community, Landwhale is still a great discussion for all of us living in our own bodies, just as it was with her first novel. Our bodies are ours and ours alone; we live for no one but ourselves. It is no one else’s place to discuss our bodies, nor dictate what the standards of beauty or health based upon them. Although, yes, many of the narratives are fat specific – not being able to partake in amusement park rides due to size constraints, equally the struggles of airplane travel, or medical professionals only trying to “cure” your obesity rather than the ailment you actually met with them for – there are still anecdotes that everyone could benefit from. Important conversations about capitalism, diet culture, fatphobia, even questions about what is considered “acceptable body alterations” in relation to body positivity.

What we must remember is this: “Let people own their own journey while remaining steadfast in yours.” We are all, after all, human.

#book #books #read #reading #literature #landwhale #landwhale by jes baker #jes baker #fat community #plus size #plus size community #body positivity #body positivity movement