Ok now, this is going to sound very rant-like, a bit troll/unfair criticism, and 100% my own personal issues. But the way she keeps posting about not needing a stick and finally being able to walk without any aids is really rubbing me the wrong way. As a young person who uses walking aids on a regular basis and needs a lot of help sometimes, her attitude when she talks about them for me feels so disparaging of those who do use them. Like everyone in life needs to be working towards not needing them at all, instead of actually acknowledging how they've helped her and they help so many.
Maybe I was just hoping that she would use her recovery and her, hopefully not life-long but at least long-term recovery and "disability" to help other young people. And also help with understanding and awareness of disabled youth and also variable disabilities.
Also the posts today about "I'm a priority and can't be seen until Jan" without any mention of why the NHS is stretched so thin or acknowledging their doing their best, saved her life and a lot of people have had essential appointments pushed, also annoyed me.
But I'm also hormonal so it's probably just me being sensitive. Thank you for coming to my rant.
I do agree with a lot of what you say, as a young mobility aid user too I recognise that she has a lot of internalised ableism in the way she’s talked about her stick and recovery in general so far. It’s no surprise really since she’s always been very keen on toxic positivity.
That being said, she’s new to this. I’m trying not to hold her to a high standard on this just yet. Nobody who is newly disabled can be a perfect advocate.
It’s human instinct to believe we can overcome anything with sheer willpower alone... until we learn otherwise. I really hope with time she might get a better perspective that stops making her sound so self-righteous.
I don’t think it’s true that she hasn’t mentioned why the NHS is stretched in the tweet today though.
The point she’s making is that our respiratory departments can’t cope with the scale of how many people aren’t recovering from Covid. It’s an important message that needs someone in the public eye like her needs to speak out on.
I don’t see it as a moan that she’s not being seen quickly enough - she’s emphasising that cases milder than her will be without treatment until well into 2022, which I'm glad she’s bringing attention to because it’s shameful.
It doesn’t mean we’re any less grateful to the NHS if we point out flaws in our own personal experiences with it, surely?
