Inspired by work people have done on madness maps and mental health first aid kits, I decided to make a checklist/flowchart to use when I am having a particularly hard time or am in crisis. It was a good process for me to make because it helped me to really think about what has helped me or caused me trouble in the past. I really like that we can make these sorts of tools for ourselves instead of relying on more general (often judgmental) dos and don’ts or advice from people who never know us as well as we know ourselves.

Tags: anxiety, art, BDSM, beauty, body, checklists, comfort, counseling, crisis, crisis checklist, depression, eating, emotions, enjoyment, exercise, fear, flowcharts, friends, games, hormones, hunger, hypnotic, illness, injury, insomnia, isolation, journaling, laundry, loneliness, madness map, madness maps, manageability, massage, medication, meditation, mental health, mental health first aid kits, messy apartments, misanthropy, museums, music, pain, painkillers, panic, parks, pets, projects, psych meds, psychiatrists, QueerMentalHealth.org, responsibility, rest, restlessness, self-fear, self-harm, self-help, self-help books, sex, showering, sleep, sleeping environment, snacks, social activities, stair climbing, stress, supplements, support groups, symptoms, task management, tea, The Icarus Project, therapists, therapy, tools, vulnerability, withdrawal, yoga

This is based on my own experience as a Disabled, Trans, Queer, Autistic activist. In compiling this list, I consulted other Disabled activists as well. Most activism I’ve been involved with has taken place in Queer, Radical, & Academic communities. I’ve been both a grass-roots activist and a student activist. I do not claim to speak on behalf of Neurodiverse or Disabled folks–or any group for that matter. Here are a few ideas I’ve compiled on how to be a better Ally to folks who have been left out of social and political movements/communities:

Tags: ableist language, academia, access, accessibility, accessible employment, activism, allies, alternatives to capitalism, assumptions, attractiveness, autism, beauty, being an ally, body image, capitalism, chronic illness, class privilege, classism, communication, consent, cultural abuse, depression, desexualization, disabilities, employment, eugenics, exclusion, fetishization, hierarchy, inclusion, intellectual privilege, intelligence, internalization, introverts, isolation, language, neurodiversity, non-verbal communication, oppression, people of color, personal space, politics of desire, poverty, power, privilege, racism, radical spaces, resources, safety, scent-free spaces, sexuality, social capital, social control, social gatherings, stereotypes, tokenization, trauma, value

In retrospect, I never was a child with high esteem for myself. I faced two distinct messages that I feel shaped my self-worth as a young adult: the media along with all the beautiful women I admired sent the message that to be a woman means I need to be beautiful and as a Catholic, I needed to be holy and a homosexual was not holy. So I grew up wanting to be beautiful and fearing being gay.

Tags: acceptance, anxiety, beauty, bisexual, blame, body image, bullying, Catholic shame, Catholicism, codepedancy, coming out, counselling, denial, depression, doubt, drugs, escapism, family support, feeling worthless, fitting in, homophobia, insomnia, internalized homophobia, isolation, lesbian, low self esteem, manageability, media portrayals, mood, mood disorder, motivation, overcompensation, panic attacks, parental approval, parental rejection, peer isolation, recovery, rejection, relapses, religious homophobia, religious upbringing, self-acceptance, self-esteem, self-harm, self-hatred, shame, suicidal thoughts, suicide, throwing up, women in media