Talking to a friend today made me realize how much of my academic career has been spent recovering from auras, seizures, and their consequences, and how much that slowed me down. And how academia as a system is designed to make you feel really ashamed of delays in and/or slow work. - ThreadSky

disabilitystor1.bsky.social • 70 days ago

Talking to a friend today made me realize how much of my academic career has been spent recovering from auras, seizures, and their consequences, and how much that slowed me down.
And how academia as a system is designed to make you feel really ashamed of delays in and/or slow work.

Comments

leafwarbler.bsky.social•70 days ago

Sorry to hear about the auras and seizures. Academia is too often brutal on slow scholarship in general, and also tends to be ableist.

jackieseidel.bsky.social•69 days ago

* is ableist

shendoodles.bsky.social•69 days ago

I've been dealing with a lot of shit that's the result of untreated ADHD because I can't get a bloody diagnosis appointment to treat it. The system is fucked and needs fixing.

cade76.bsky.social•69 days ago

When I got into Japan's academic world, my first thought was this isn't rigorous as the US. But now I understand. They take care of their people, invest in talent, the standards are actually just as good once you're in the trenches, and the standard of living is so much better. The West could learn.

cade76.bsky.social•69 days ago

Don't get me wrong, there are things in Japan academia that still annoy me. But taking care of their people more than I ever felt at US programs is something that's really important that I think would be great for other cultures to pick up.

disabilitystor1.bsky.social•69 days ago

US/western academia never believes in "taking care of their people" we instead just tolerate and eventually jettison anyone who can't run the treadmill at the same pace for whatever reason. Its debilitating in itself.

jackieseidel.bsky.social•68 days ago

It absolutely is. The wellness agenda means either you are extremely well (plus every kind of privilege). Or you should leave. Or you might be tolerated but made totally miserable. It’s a debility factory.

meka72esq.bsky.social•70 days ago

I apologize if I took your thread in a different direction.

disabilitystor1.bsky.social•70 days ago

No, no, its fine. Its the same direction, tbh, of my post. solidarity.

meka72esq.bsky.social•70 days ago

I’m coming to grips with how epilepsy has impacted my career as an attorney. It’s unlikely that I’ll practice law again and it guts me.

isasaxonists.bsky.social•69 days ago

Yup and the "rest and recover" statements are so that you will hurry up and get back to the grind not just rest and recover so you can be as whole as can be for you.

maaikeverbruggen.bsky.social•69 days ago

And it means literally all your energy and mindset is focused on academia and recovering to go back to academia, there is nothing else left in you

disabilitystor1.bsky.social•69 days ago

These grind my gears. That, and the academics who assume abledness is the default, and only think about disability or accommodations after it happens to them. Its always an endless, destructive reach for asinine productivity measures, that have nothing to do with the quality of our work.

isasaxonists.bsky.social•69 days ago

Yup. The added pressure on BIPOC (particularly women/femmes) is they still expect quality and by now they know we will put enough pressure on ourselves to produce quality (generally speaking).

disabilitystor1.bsky.social•69 days ago

YEP. I know so many others who are BIPOC who are kind of shocked that I am "out" and "open." Some of them are disabled or ill, and have hidden it because..you know. Its so difficult. But others also are a little nervous because they think being a disabled poc is "too much".

wokedczar.bsky.social•69 days ago

Wait, you can be TWO THINGS?????

jackieseidel.bsky.social•69 days ago

Most disabled and ill academics I know hide it. The process of seeking accommodations is completely humiliating and violent. And increases the level of scrutiny and surveillance.

isasaxonists.bsky.social•69 days ago

The speed with which Covid isn't a thing any more in academia was very eye opening.

jackcharnista.bsky.social•69 days ago

The capitalist view of humans as simply production machinery infects everything.

rainbowjam.bsky.social•69 days ago

So much this. I struggle with vague fatigue& other stuff and it's so disheartening to see how slow I am compared to peers, and how much I'm judged for it. Might end my academic career ins few years. Academics are still supposed to be brains on sticks, not people with needs and even disabilities.

sniphist.bsky.social•69 days ago

Absolutely! I felt "behind" compared to peers who graduated at the same time, and I think a lot of it was dealing with chronic fatigue and flares, which slow me down so much. Hard not to imagine what I'd be doing now if not for chronic illness.

disabilitystor1.bsky.social•69 days ago

Sigh, yes. And its life milestones inside and outside academia, my timeline for these things have been delayed by coping with illness. Its hard to explain even to loved ones how that works, and I don't think they will understand without first hand experience.

annikawilliams.bsky.social•69 days ago

Extremely this!! And trying to explain to people that the recovery period for a flare up doesn't just mean I'm behind on academic stuff, it also means I'm behind in stuff that has to be done first like taking out my garbage and doing dishes etc

jackieseidel.bsky.social•69 days ago

Totally. Behind on everything.

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