"The lens of disability activism has given me an invaluable framework from which to realize my own..."

The lens of disability activism has given me an invaluable framework from which to realize my own experience. I can look back at my old belief that, for example, having to wake up and take a pill every morning in order to have “normal moods” would make me less of a person, and answer “Hey, that’s ableist as hell. Lots of people have to wake up and take a pill for some reason or another.”

And yet, I’m not ready to write a big coming-out post conceding that I have disabling illnesses because I’m wary of accepting the mental illness/mental health dichotomy and concluding that I’m on the wrong side of it. Accepting a system that has defined “functional” as “able to shut up and punch a clock for 40 hours a week,” and “functional” as both a state to aspire to (in lieu of, say, actualized) and a requirement for full citizenship.