Disability Pride & Me
Today is my second anniversary of life with celiac disease, and it’s also the last day of disability pride month. This month has been one where I’ve been doing a lot of thinking about what it means to have a disability and what it means to be proud of who you are with your conditions. This month has been a lot. I’ve been pondering one question really deeply all month. Since being diagnosed with two autoimmune diseases (type one diabetes and celiac disease) and generalized anxiety disorder, I haven’t considered myself to be a totally healthy/able/“normal” person. But I also don’t consider myself to be sick exactly, because I’m not really sick . Like, everything is as good as it can be, health-wise. My management is good and all that. So if I don’t fit the definition of totally healthy (I survive on insulin, gluten-free food, and therapy), but I’m also not sick (my health isn’t declining or anything like that), then where do I fit? What am I? What’s the word that describes me? What commu