Rampant randomness
Aug. 25th, 2004 06:31 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
vulgarweedHappy birthday, ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
lakenaiad!
And a moment to think of Elisabeth Kubler-Ross, 78, whose work helped make the passage better for so many millions. Thank you, Dr. May your own journey be glorious and your destination profound.
Haven't updated in a while. When I'm not working, I've been sitting on the couch, doing a lot of vegging, and celebrating athleticism in my favorite way: watching other people do it, ooh'ing and aah'ing, and thinking, 'better them than me."
Is beach volleyball slashy or what? (Congrats to Emmanuel & Ricardo!).
And, because I've mostly been watching the late-night coverage of course, here's something about something going on on a Delayed Sleep Phase Syndrome Yahoogroup:
Someone on that group who is not the most tactful human on the planet pissed off a few group members by indelicately bringing up the matter of whether our sleep "disorder" is an "illness."
Now, some people in the group do feel that it is an illness or disability, very much so, and much of the discussion is about melatonin, lightbox regimens, vitamins to combat the immune deficiencies that come with chronic sleep-dep (pretty much inevitable among DSPS people trying to work 9 to 5), depression that comes from screwing up your cycles, etc.
Others feel these "treatments" are just frustrating snake oil, and that the condition is really something more like being very short or very tall, or being gay--you're in a minority, and the majority world is not set up to accomodate you and some will be prejudiced against you and make ignorant remarks, but you can certainly build a meaningful life just as you are, even turning your "abnormality" into an advantage, and there's not anything wrong with you--unless you wreck your health, mentally or physically, by trying to change something you can't.
I fall into the latter camp, fairly obviously. But is it a "disability" of some sort, no matter how hard I refuse to feel diminished by it? It does keep me out of a great number of professions. It certainly is a condition much misunderstood, and there sure is stigma. Maybe there are benefits to be gained--lobbying for inclusion under the Americans With Disabilities Act, which many people in this group support, sure would make a hell of a lot of people's lives better. But I don't "feel" disabled, for Erussake, and isn't that an insult to people with real disabilities?
What am I missing here? What's the flaw in my attitude about this.
lakenaiad!And a moment to think of Elisabeth Kubler-Ross, 78, whose work helped make the passage better for so many millions. Thank you, Dr. May your own journey be glorious and your destination profound.
Haven't updated in a while. When I'm not working, I've been sitting on the couch, doing a lot of vegging, and celebrating athleticism in my favorite way: watching other people do it, ooh'ing and aah'ing, and thinking, 'better them than me."
Is beach volleyball slashy or what? (Congrats to Emmanuel & Ricardo!).
And, because I've mostly been watching the late-night coverage of course, here's something about something going on on a Delayed Sleep Phase Syndrome Yahoogroup:
Someone on that group who is not the most tactful human on the planet pissed off a few group members by indelicately bringing up the matter of whether our sleep "disorder" is an "illness."
Now, some people in the group do feel that it is an illness or disability, very much so, and much of the discussion is about melatonin, lightbox regimens, vitamins to combat the immune deficiencies that come with chronic sleep-dep (pretty much inevitable among DSPS people trying to work 9 to 5), depression that comes from screwing up your cycles, etc.
Others feel these "treatments" are just frustrating snake oil, and that the condition is really something more like being very short or very tall, or being gay--you're in a minority, and the majority world is not set up to accomodate you and some will be prejudiced against you and make ignorant remarks, but you can certainly build a meaningful life just as you are, even turning your "abnormality" into an advantage, and there's not anything wrong with you--unless you wreck your health, mentally or physically, by trying to change something you can't.
I fall into the latter camp, fairly obviously. But is it a "disability" of some sort, no matter how hard I refuse to feel diminished by it? It does keep me out of a great number of professions. It certainly is a condition much misunderstood, and there sure is stigma. Maybe there are benefits to be gained--lobbying for inclusion under the Americans With Disabilities Act, which many people in this group support, sure would make a hell of a lot of people's lives better. But I don't "feel" disabled, for Erussake, and isn't that an insult to people with real disabilities?
What am I missing here? What's the flaw in my attitude about this.
