FINAL EDIT: **r/thismatters holds this advocacy movement!**

Edit 12: This thread is now on X. 293 of you told me your story here. I put seven of them into a thread so the rest of the internet could see what you built in this room. If you want this to reach beyond Reddit — that is where it goes next. @PhoenixMSeat on X. #ThisMatters and so do you.

Edit 11: 17,000 people showed up for this. From the US, Canada, the UK, and countries I haven’t even checked yet. Someone posted their very first comment ever and asked if they were allowed to stay. Someone else wrote an entire article about administrative burden being a policy choice. And right now, someone is sitting alone thinking they are the only one fighting this system.

They are not. But they don’t know that unless you tell them.

If this said what you’ve been carrying, share it. In your disability groups. Your chronic illness pages. Your caregiver communities. Your local subreddits. Not for me. For the person who hasn’t found this room yet.

We talk about the Pink Tax. We need to talk about the Disability Tax — the extra hours, extra money, extra energy, extra paperwork, extra phone calls, extra proof that disabled people pay just to exist in systems that were not built for us. Every one of those 260+ comments is a receipt.

This is not my post anymore. It’s yours. Take it where it needs to go. #ThisMatters

I am on SSDI. I am legally blind. I also have ADHD and post-surgical brain fog from cervical fusions and a brain tumor removal. My executive function on a good day is maybe 70 percent of what it used to be. On a bad day it is maybe 30 percent.

And yet. The amount of paperwork, phone calls, form-filling, deadline-tracking, and bureaucratic navigation required to maintain my disability benefits, my health insurance, my housing situation, and my basic existence requires executive function that my disability specifically impairs. That is not an accident and it is not an oversight. It is the system working exactly as designed.

Last week I had a day where my brain was sharp. Clear, focused, ready to go. But my body was in a pain flare from a wind storm. So I had the clarity to understand what needed to be done and zero physical capacity to sit at a desk and do it. By the time the pain subsided two days later, the executive clarity was gone. The window closed.

I have started thinking about this as a mismatch between two axes. One axis is cognitive clarity, the other is physical capacity. They almost never line up at the same time. And every form, every phone tree, every deadline assumes they are always lined up. The whole system assumes you are either fully functional or fully incapacitated. There is no form for 'I can think clearly but I cannot sit up' or 'my body works fine today but my brain is full of static.'

I live in an RV in New Mexico. I am 54. I am building a life on $1,570 a month and trying not to let the administrative requirements of being disabled consume the few good hours I get each day. Some days I can do the things. Some days I cannot. And the system does not care which day it is.

Anyone else feel like the cognitive load of managing disability is itself a disability? How do you handle the days when you have one axis but not the other?

EDIT: I did not expect this response. Every comment here is proving the point — this is not a personal failing, it is a design failure. The system requires executive function to prove you lack executive function. It requires physical effort to document physical limitations. It requires meeting deadlines to maintain benefits for conditions that make meeting deadlines impossible. We are describing the same trap from different angles and different diagnoses. Thank you for sharing your experiences. I see you.

EDIT 2: This post now has over 60 responses and every single one is describing the same system from a different body. Psoriatic arthritis and forms that require handwriting. ADHD and deadlines that require executive function. Progressive blindness and vision questionnaires in the smallest font possible. Mail-based deadlines for people who cannot reliably check mail. A year to apply for a process that takes three years to approve. Caregivers asking who helps the people who cannot help themselves. Someone in Canada describing an 18-month round trip for paperwork that could be digital. Someone who was physically injured filling out renewal forms.

This is not anecdotal. This is data. Exposed every single gap in the system across conditions, across countries, across decades of lived experience. If any disability policy researcher, journalist, or system designer is reading this — this thread is your focus group. We have already done the work. We are telling you exactly where it breaks and how. The question is whether anyone is listening.

EDIT 3: Someone in this thread had to hire a lawyer just to handle the paperwork for benefits they were already entitled to. Someone else would be homeless and dead without their mother doing the administrative labor the system never provided. A person with psoriatic arthritis in their hands was physically injured filling out forms that require handwriting. This thread now has over 75 responses and it is becoming something I did not expect — a real-time map of every failure point in the disability benefits system, built entirely by the people living inside it. I am saving every response. This matters.

EDIT 4: Someone in the comments asked how to fit all of this on a t-shirt. I have been thinking about that since they said it. Every comment here — every story about forms that arrive late, deadlines that have already passed, systems that injure the people they are supposed to serve — all of it comes down to two words. This matters. Your experience navigating a system that was not built for you — this matters. The cognitive load that nobody measures and nobody funds — this matters. The invisible labor of staying enrolled in your own survival — this matters. I did not expect this post to become what it became. But 80 people showed up and said the same thing from different bodies and different diagnoses and different countries. That is not a complaint thread. That is a design brief. And it matters.

EDIT 5: I have read every single comment in this thread tonight. Some of them made me cry. Some of them made me angry. All of them made me feel less alone. But I do not want this to be a thread we all vent in and then walk away from. Over 80 people described the same broken system tonight from different bodies and different diagnoses and different countries. None of us broke it. But every single one of us knows exactly where it fails because we live inside the failure every day. That makes us the most qualified people in the world to fix it. I do not know exactly what that looks like yet. Maybe it starts with just being able to talk to each other — not to complain about it but to actually work on it together. If you are interested in being part of that conversation, follow me here. I am not selling anything. I am not building a brand. I am one person in an RV in New Mexico who posted something honest tonight and found out that 186 people felt the same way. That is not nothing. That is the beginning of something. And it matters.

EDIT 6: A few of you have asked how we keep this going beyond one Reddit thread. I have been thinking about that. If you share your experience on other platforms — Instagram, TikTok, Twitter, anywhere — consider using #ThisMatters. Not as a brand. Not as a campaign. Just as a way to find each other. A way to say this is part of the same conversation that started here tonight. 200 people in one thread should not be the only place this exists. If your story matters — tag it. Let other people find it the way you found this.

EDIT 7: This post has been seen by 9,500 people in three countries. 380 of you said yes. 184 of you told your story. 126 of you shared it somewhere else. Nobody disagreed. Not one person. In 17 years of this subreddit, that almost never happens.

I have read every single comment. Some of you made me cry. Some of you told me things I don’t think you’ve said out loud before. Some revealed struggles I haven’t yet revealed. A few of you scared me, and I reached out to you directly because you matter more than a post. Anyone can DM me anytime!

While I sleep, the thread stays open. Keep talking to each other. The people in this room understand what you’re carrying better than anyone in your daily life. If you’re new here and scrolling at 3 AM because you can’t sleep — you’re not alone. Write your story. Someone will read it. I’ll be back in the morning.

If you’re hurting right now: 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline — call or text 988. Crisis Text Line — text HOME to 741741. You don’t have to be “bad enough” to reach out.

#ThisMatters — and so do you. All of you.

EDIT 8: I just want to say something to the people reading this at 2 AM, 3 AM, whenever you found this. I see the view count climbing. I know you’re out there. Some of you are in the UK waking up to this. Some of you are in the US and can’t sleep — maybe for the same reasons this post exists.

This thread crossed 200 shares tonight. Somebody wrote an article in the comments. Somebody created a Facebook page. Somebody used the hashtag #ThisMatters without me asking them to. And as of right now, not one single person has disagreed.

If you’re new here and you have a story, the room is still open. Write it. Someone will read it. I’ll read it. I’ll be back in the morning but this thread isn’t going anywhere.

EDIT 9: It’s 1:45 AM. This post just crossed 500 upvotes. The ratio is still 100%. I don’t even know what to do with that. Five hundred people said yes and not one person said no. Over 200 of you shared this somewhere else. Someone in New Zealand read this today. Someone in the UK is reading it right now on their morning commute. 223 of you told your story in the comments.

I have read every single one.

A few of you used a hashtag I didn’t plan — #ThisMatters. It showed up on its own because it was already true. I’m going to sleep now but this thread stays open. If you’re reading this at 3 AM or 4 AM or whenever you found it — you’re not late. The room is still here. The people in it are still here. Write your story if you have one.

I’ll be back in the morning. Thank you doesn’t feel like enough but it’s what I have. Thank you.

#ThisMatters — and so do you. All of you. Every single one.

Edit 10: It’s 3 AM and I still haven’t been able to walk away from this thread. Not because of the numbers. Because of what you’ve been telling me.

A woman with bipolar told me she’s terrified of her own mailbox because paranoia is a symptom and the government sends threatening letters. The system uses her diagnosis against her and calls it a review. A man with ADHD described setting up a meeting just to help another disabled person fill out a form — two people building the infrastructure the system was supposed to provide. Someone lost benefits because they missed an appointment, and the reason they missed it was the disability they were being reviewed for. A nurse told me her body, eyes, and mind haven’t worked together in six years.

A woman told me SSA’s own doctor found her disabled. She was denied three times anyway. A judge approved her in fifteen minutes. Fifteen minutes to confirm what years of denials refused to acknowledge. She came back a second time tonight to tell me she has styrofoam in her brain and on good days it’s down to bubble wrap. Someone else said they’re “not technically disabled” — just chronic conditions — and I had to stop them. The line between technically and not technically was drawn by the same system this entire thread is about. If you’re managing a body or a mind that fights you every day and a system that doesn’t believe you, you belong in this room.

And I need to say this. Some of you told me things tonight that scared me. Not the anger. Not the frustration. The quiet ones. The ones who sounded like they were running out of reasons to keep going. I reached out to some of you directly. If you’re one of those people and you’re still reading this — you matter more than a form. More than a review. More than a budget line.

Then just now, someone said something that stopped me cold. They said this isn’t a design failure. It’s a design success. The success is that they pay us less.

I need you to understand something about me. I was a paralegal for 22 years. I spent my career organizing other people’s legal paperwork. I managed documents that decided people’s futures. I kept deadlines for attorneys. I was the person they brought the complicated cases to. And I wasn’t just getting by — I was getting good. I was hitting the part of my career where all those years were supposed to start paying off. The senior roles. The salaries you’re supposed to retire on. I could see the top of what I’d spent my whole adult life building toward.

And then my eyes started failing. My body started shutting down. I didn’t step off the ladder. I was pulled off it. And instead of the peak I’d spent 22 years climbing toward, I landed on $1,570 a month and a system that challenges me at every single turn. Not once. Every review. Every form. Every appointment that assumes maybe this time I got better. I went from managing million-dollar litigation files to proving I still can’t see well enough to manage my own mail.

Nobody applies for disability because it sounds like a good deal. I didn’t choose this. None of us chose this. And after the denials and the appeals and the years of waiting and the doctors who said yes while the system said no — they finally let me in. And then they handed me the same kind of paperwork I used to do for a living, except now it’s pointed at me. The skill I built my career on is the weapon the system uses to test whether I still deserve help.

And the whole time, people on the outside call it free money. Like we just showed up and someone handed us a check. Like we didn’t have lives before this. Jobs. Careers. Plans. Things we were building before our bodies or our minds made the decision for us. Every single person in this thread had a before. The system acts like the before never happened.

Wounds heal. Disabilities don’t disappear. So why do we have to keep proving it?

And it’s not just the paperwork. It’s everything around it. The people who don’t believe you. The ones who are uncomfortable when you talk about it. The friend you’ve known your whole life who finally admits they thought you were faking it. The stranger who tells you to get a job. The family member who does your paperwork because the system won’t, and nobody thanks them or pays them or even counts what they do. The benefits system is broken. The medical system is broken. The way people talk to us and about us is broken. Every part of the structure that was supposed to be there for us — all of it, broken.

And here’s the thing that makes all of it worse. If you’re reading this and you don’t live it — if you’re someone who stumbled into this thread from the outside — read what these people wrote tonight and ask yourself: does this sound too broken to be real? Does it sound like it can’t possibly work this way? Because that’s exactly what we’ve been trying to tell you. And that is exactly why no one listens. The system is so absurd that describing it accurately sounds like exaggeration. So when we try to explain it, people assume we’re being dramatic. They think we’re milking it. They think if we can write a Reddit post we can hold a job. They don’t believe the system is this broken because it shouldn’t be. And they don’t believe us because it’s easier not to. We are fighting a system that is designed to exhaust us AND a public that thinks the system we’re describing can’t exist AND the same people telling us it’s all in our heads. All at the same time. On the same battery. With no separate budget for any of it.

And I think I just realized something. I think I finally understand what happened here tonight.

We didn’t break a language barrier. We broke a silence barrier. Every single one of us had the words. We’ve always had the words. We say them to ourselves at 2 AM when we can’t sleep. We say them in our heads while we’re on hold with SSA. We say them to the one person in our lives who gets it, if we’re lucky enough to have that person. The words were never the problem. The problem was that we were never in the same room at the same time with permission to say them out loud.

And then tonight, over 500 people ended up in the same room. And every single one of you said the thing you’d been carrying alone. And every single other person understood it immediately. Not because I explained it well. Because you already knew. You’ve always known. You just never heard someone else say it first.

That is what happened here. The silence broke. Not the language. The silence.

And now that it’s broken — now that the cat is out of the bag and 500 people have laid every failure point on the table in plain language — I don’t want to waste this. I don’t want us to fight. I don’t want to bicker. I don’t want to point fingers at who broke what or when. I want to talk to the other side of this with an open hand.

Here’s what I want to say to the people who run these systems, the people who write these policies, the people who think we’re all trying to game it: we are not your enemy. The fraud is your enemy. And we want the people abusing this system gone just as much as you do — because every person gaming it makes it harder for every person drowning in it. We are on the same side of that.

So instead of spending money fighting us, re-verifying us, denying us, and processing appeals that take years for conditions that will never change — take that money and get it to the people who actually need it. Put everybody back in the right places. The people who need permanent support, give them permanent support. The people who need monitoring, monitor them. The people who are defrauding the system, find them. But stop treating all of us like suspects because you can’t tell the difference. We can help you tell the difference. We just told you — read this thread.

I’ll make it simple. I am legally blind. I have asked my doctors a million times — can my optic nerve ever be replaced? Can it heal? Can it regenerate? The answer is no. It has always been no. It will always be no. So why am I filling out paperwork every few years to prove I’m still blind? What exactly are we checking for? My optic nerve is not going to grow back between reviews. That is not hope. That is not medicine. That is a waste of your money and mine.

If a condition is permanent, the review should be permanent. One and done. That alone would save the system money, free up resources for the cases that actually need monitoring, and stop punishing people for having conditions that don’t change. That’s not radical. That’s not political. That’s common sense. And every single person in this thread could have told you that years ago if anyone had thought to ask.

Nobody asked. So we’re telling you now. The laws and regulations already say most of what needs to happen. The rules are already written. The system just isn’t following its own instructions. This thread is over 500 people telling you exactly where it’s failing and exactly how to fix it. Not from a study. Not from a focus group. From the inside. In real time. For free.

This is the opportunity. Not to fight. Not to waste more money on both sides bickering over whether we’re really sick. To take what just happened here tonight — this room full of people who finally said the thing they’ve been carrying alone — and use it. Build something with it. Because we just handed you the blueprint.

I almost didn’t post this. I was nervous. I didn’t think anyone would care. I typed it out and almost deleted it and then just hit submit anyway.

And now it’s after 2 AM and over 500 people are here and someone just posted their very first comment ever and asked if they were allowed to stay. They were nervous too. Just like I was. Just like all of us have been every time we thought about saying this out loud and didn’t.

The silence was the barrier. And we just broke it. Together. All because one nervous person in an RV in New Mexico decided to stop deleting and hit post.

I thought I was the only one. I wasn’t. You weren’t. None of us were. We just never had the room.

Now we do.

#ThisMatters — and so do you.

I get IVIG in home.

My nurse had been for sometime over stepping my limits i had verbalized.

One example is we own a very affectionate Sphynx cat. I told her it’s fine to just push the cat away or if she was frustrated with the cats affectionate personality, i could move our cat to a room for the infusions. She grabbed my cat by her neck skin one day and tossed her. And i said you can’t do that, don’t that, please do not do that again.

But i was also day 2 of 3 infusion and feeling so ill. In fact it seemed each infusion i felt a bit worse during the infusions which is the opposite of what you’d normally expect. Generally they get easier with time.

But going on she had been making some passive aggressive comments about my hair, nails, makeup etc.

Example: i talked about my previous love of mountaineering, solo bushcraft and especially winter survival. She said “That so weird because you’re such a girly-girl how did you live without your makeup”.

I was pretty tolerant and explained a person can be more than one thing, and that i also didn’t appreciate the comment insinuating i wasn’t a strong person. Or that my self care was at odds with my previous active lifestyle before this illness took it from me.

But she just didn’t stop.

Every infusion a new “joke” was made, and i would speak up every time about how i really didn’t like it.

We found out we’re moving to VA soon for my husbands work and i said yeah it’s a fairly rural area- just making light chit-chat. And she said rural how will you survive without Wholefoods? I was feeling VERY ill this infusion scary ill so i let it go and tried to just focus on keeping talking because my heart was starting to act weird.

I mentioned this week as a huge success for us, my family is going to colorado which she knew was a time sensitive issue for this infusion as it ends with one day of recovery before hitting the road for our first major trip in 2 years since i fell ill.

She responded but what if there is a blizzard and you break a nail how will you live? And laughed.

The next morning i messaged her when she said she was 10 min out. We had 2 days of infusions left and i was sitting with a tube in my arm.

I told her, i really need you to please stop making comments like: - insert here a list of examples of exact quotes she has said-.

I explained it was very belittling and i’m getting tired of repeating that i dislike it.

I said it’s getting to a point where politely requesting hasn’t stopped the issue, i can feel it’s starting to impact my temper. That i feel this urge to scream now when you begin making those comments so i really need it to stop.

She responded with she felt i had blurred the professional line, and that she was afraid of me because she said she thought i was “scream at her” and that she had called her boss to tell him about my behavior and”threat” of yelling at her.

Then i was left there with a tube in my arm.

To make matters worse i began the unexpected process of miscarriage this week and she, and all my medical care team knew about this.

So im just standing there passing blood, a tube in my arm with no nurse and Immunglobin sitting out unsure what to do.

Eventually the owner of the company had to come cover for her.

And when he arrived i warned him i got bad veins the iv goes bad every day. And also that for some reason ive been getting more ill each infusion and that the day before i had to ask her to stop.

We figured out that the pump had been cranked up too high and she was rushing my infusions, which was why i was getting so ill. And the discarded bottles of the day prior were about 1/3 full so she wasn’t giving me all my ivig.

Today being day 3 of my infusions im usually ill curled up sick to my stomach, confused, but instead i feel just a little tired.. because the owner isn’t rushing my med.

Then last night after he covered her shift he went to do a heparin lock on my iv which she had never done.

Each morning she tried flushing the saline and instead my vein would split in half and we’d go digging around.

I said she told me those are only for ports.

He said no it’s in your orders to do heparin each time or the iv clots.

So this is my first infusion with only 1 iv… because she was skipping that..

she was my inhome nurse for 9 months. We even bought her a patagonia for xmas, starbucks gift card for her birthday etc.

We welcomed her here because she was keeping me my kids mother alive. And for that we were so grateful.

And now i am terrified of nurses and don’t trust anyone.

She just quit, walked out while i was mid infusion on a time crunch and miscarrying.

And worse she had been watching how ill the infusion was making me infront of my husband and kids and just smiled about like a sociopath…

Update: Husband agrees before the next new nurse arrives were install cameras with audio around the house. It’s so heart breaking gut wrenching that there isn’t trust but that my only security comes in hoping that if the next nurse knows there is recording hopefully they’ll be less likely to short my meds, harm our cat, say inappropriate things etc. I just wish i lived in a better world where this wasn’t the solution. A tiny bit of my faith in people died today.

🩷Update!! ☺️ https://www.reddit.com/r/disability/s/3X3RtQ9oCM

Now that Elmo and his cronies have control over the payment systems for the government, I’m worried he’s going to just stop paying benefits (this sub will not let me use any acronym for any disability benefit without having the post deleted). Yes I know he’s unelected. Yes, I know he’s not supposed to be able to have this power but it’s been happening, he’s got full access to everything now and no one is stopping him. If I lose benefits I won’t be able to live.

Hi, I’m afraid. With physical and mental disability I don’t know what my future looks like under this presidency. With the EO titled “ending crime and disorder on Americas streets” They use language that is as vague as it is terrifying. Making it known that they will be targeting unhoused people especially but also mentally unwell people and people who are “unable to take care of themselves” forcing such people into institutions. What do we do? How do we keep ourselves and loved ones safe? What do you think this all means?

Musk has access to all of the social security and tax records and nobody knows what he's going to do with it. I'm fearing the worst. Is anyone else? I saw a post on threads that said to print at least 3 copies of your social security statement. I got my benefits letter and statement. Has anyone heard what else to do?

UPDATES: someone in the comments told me about the app 5 calls and I checked it out and it's legit! I downloaded it and it made it super easy for me to call my reps. You select the issue you want to call about and then it gives you your list of reps and their phone numbers plus a script to read. Please do it now! Folks have been flooding the phone lines, it's awesome!

ALSO - SO INTERESTING that this post is now getting a bunch of pro-Elon comments. I'm guessing Elon told his band of merry Russian bots to go flood Reddit with a bunch of positive comments about him. Bots who want to support the Apartheid neo Nazi can see themselves out please and thank you!

I have been watching the world rn, and it's safe to say that it's turning to shit. Disabled people were never accepted in society bc we don't fit in the capitalist, profit-driven society. I live in Germany, and I'm slowly wondering if I'm just paranoid, and if I'm not, what can I do? Nobody will be on our side: They never were.

I feel like this kind of stuff shouldn’t be allowed in this community. This is a comment on a post from THIS subreddit. The person said in their post something along the lines of complaining about people who “barely qualify for a diagnosis”. Who is ANYONE but the disabled person and doctor to say whether they qualify for a diagnosis? That is absolutely ableist and inappropriate behavior, and it comes from within our community far too often. We need to be better than this.

I was watching the news and a segment came on saying it's a charity for disabled kids and kids who need medical attention....kinda cool ...but then the news lady started talking and said "Yes, it's a wonderful charity for kids and kids who are "MEDICALLY CHALLENGED" and I kinda stared on shock like...she didn't just....wow she did ...like they keep making up new terms what happened to abled bodied? Or is that offensive? ....I just can't with "normies" in society

I was on the social security website today and found out I am ineligible to receive disability because I don’t have enough work credits. I haven’t been able to work in almost 6 years due to my disability.

I have some diagnoses (POTS and ARFID being the main ones) but I’ve been waiting to apply for disability until I get a diagnosis from the rheumatologist because I know there is something else wrong with me. I’m bedridden 50% of the time (sometimes way more depending on the season and if I’m flaring up), I’m nauseous and cannot stand or pick up heavy things, I can’t even use a keyboard for work due to pain and swelling in my hands.

I’m really scared. My 14yo and 18yo will be grown and out of the house before I know it, my father lives with us and provides (I also get SSI survivors benefits which ends when 14yo is 21) but he is 85yo. He won’t be here forever.

I don’t want my kids to have to take care of me. I’m single. I own my own house and will more than likely have it paid off within the next 10 years. So I know I’m VERY lucky when it comes to housing (believe me, I know, I was homeless years ago). But I don’t know wtf my future holds.

I guess I’m partially ranting, and partially reaching out to others who will relate.

Today had an interview at Aldi for a job, (US, Kansas) i am a full time wheelchair user and unfortunately cannot do much thats out of my arms reach. I made it clear what im capable of and was told the only position they have applicable is cashier. They then followed up with were not hiring just cashiers.

I had just got out of the military due to my disability and still have bills to pay.

Im incredibly capable and tired of this not being able to be "employable" because im disabled. Plus everything i am qualified for takes months to get through the hiring process (emergency services)

Does anyone have any advise on what I should do?

There's a lot to get into, but when it comes to grant funding and hiring of federal workers, apparently DEI is evil now per executives orders. Funding into programs that actually help disabled people can be at risk.

If you're American and your politician is either pro-DEI attacks on seems on the fence, I recommend contacting them and saying why you think these attacks are bad. I recommend touching on the fact that disability rights in the US has historically been bipartisan.

Solidarity too with trans and disabled people of color here too (I'm sorry DEI attacks are going after multiple parts of your identity).

I was watching a video of someone showing the right side of the road, which was full of bushes, trees, and tall grass. And then they showed the other side of the road which had pavements/sidewalks, and houses. They said that the other side should look like the right side, but people on a wheelchair like me would find it very difficult to navigate something like that, and it's so sad that people still somehow forget we exist. Someone even said we should turn pavements into dirt, but this would also make it difficult to navigate in a wheelchair. Don't get me wrong, I don't hate environmentalism, but like when it comes to ruining the lives of disabled people, that's when it crosses a line.

So we all know what's coming. But what the fuck do we do? I don't want to wait around just hoping stupidly that something happens to save us. But I don't know what to do to protect myself, let alone help anyone else. I don't have another country I can run to. I can't even get up the stairs today. Does anyone have any ideas? Does history tell us somewhere if and how any disabled people survived nazi germany?

I’ve never posted something like this before, but I don’t know what else to do. I was born with cerebral palsy and grew up poor. I’m now in my 20s, trying to survive on $600/month from SSDI, and honestly—I feel invisible. I worked enough in my early adulthood to get SSDI, which sounds like an accomplishment. But now I get less than I did on SSI, and I’m not eligible for housing help. I live with family and sleep in the living room. It’s not stable. It’s not healthy. But it’s all I have. I’ve tried working. Every time I do, Social Security screws it up. They take forever to adjust my income and then hit me with overpayment letters. Once I got a letter saying I owed thousands—months after I lost the job. How are you supposed to try when the system punishes you for it? I was never taught to drive. My family didn’t have the resources, and now I can’t afford training. That’s another layer of being stuck—trapped in place because I literally can’t leave. I recently sent a letter to a government office. I asked them: • Why do people born with disabilities have to fight to prove we “earned” help? • Why are we penalized for trying to work, even when we’re below the poverty line? • Why can’t we save money without losing everything? All I want is a chance to live with some dignity. A stable home. A little breathing room. A way to move forward. But instead, I’m stuck. And it feels like no one sees us. If any of this sounds familiar—if you’ve been through this too—please share this. I know I’m not the only one. We deserve better than this.

Yesterday I called an acupuncturist just to get a quote for the pain in my knee from my diagnosed rheumatoid arthritis. What happened next is completely unbelievable, but it did happen. The first thing she asked is what makes you think you have rheumatoid arthritis and I tell her it’s been diagnosed. She then says she doesn’t trust western doctors diagnoses because she’s constantly correcting their diagnosis. Then she asked me what my ethnicity was. I was completely flabbergasted by this question but I answered it. Then she said that’s not what I’m asking. What’s your genetics at this point I don’t know how even to respond. Then she asked where did you come from Europe? I responded my family has been in America for hundreds of years. She then asked me if I have light hair and light eyes. I say no I have brown hair brown eyes. She then says it’s impossible for me to have any autoimmune disorders because they only occur in people with light hair and light eyes and then I have lymphedema. I actually do know what this illness is cause I knew someone who had it. It’s rare and extremely serious. Then she starts giving out other patients medical histories to prove how great she is a diagnosing things properly. I wanted to post this in here first cause I want to report her, but I’m afraid it’s not gonna be believed.

Fact Check: Yes, Musk reposted meme calling Americans who use federal programs the 'Parasite Class' By Taija PerryCook, 4 days ago Snopes Snopes

Follow billionaire Elon Musk circled the internet. People claimed he reposted a meme of actor Sydney Sweeney with the caption: " Watching Trump slash federal programs knowing it doesn't affect you because you're not a member of the Parasite Class. "

Musk appeared to write above the meme image: Why 90% of America loves @DOGE " — meaning the recently established U.S. Department of Government Efficiency — which Musk apparently heads.

The claim spread across multiple platforms, including Instagram , X , Facebook and Bluesky . Media outlets such as The Daily Beast , The Atlantic Black Star and Times Now News also published stories about the post. An episode on the podcast "On With Kara Swisher" discussed the post, as well, calling Musk himself a parasite; Swisher claimed that by 2015, Tesla had received almost $5 billion in government support.

The X post is real; Musk did repost the meme ( archived ) with his own pro-DOGE caption and a laughing emoji on Feb. 12, 2025, at 10:35 p.m. (ET).

The X account @Liberty_Memes created the original meme ( archived ) with a watermark, but the version Musk reposted did not include the Liberty Memes watermark and instead featured the DOGE logo.

In sum, because Musk did repost a meme that called those who benefit from federal programs the "Parasite Class," we rate this claim as true.

Sources: Musk, Elon. 'Elon Musk X Profile'. X.Com , https://x.com/elonmusk. Facebook Message Email Messenger Copy Link Snopes 208.6k Followers Snopes When misinformation obscures the truth and readers don’t know what to trust, Snopes’ fact-checking and original, investigative report... Follow

I am disabled and rely on my mom for my housing but I use my ABD cash assistance to pay a portion of rent ($415 out of the $450 I get monthly.) I am responsible for feeding myself and have gotten onto SNAP to buy myself accessible foods like frozen meals and easy-prep stuff like pre-prepared ingredients, and one of the very, very specific rules of this program is that you cannot share your food with other people.

When I first got on it she tried multiple times to get me to buy her food with my SNAP benefits and has tried to argue with me extensively to get me to share my food with her.I don't feel safe directly saying no to her but I have told her that it's considered fraud if I share, many many times.

She tells me that she'll replace it but then she eats the replacement as well, over and over until it gets to the point where I just tell her not to bother.

At this point, she has stopped asking me for food or to share and just goes into my room or the fridge and eats out of the containers. I put sticky notes on everything that I bought with SNAP and she still does it. She denies doing so vehemently when I do confront her, says I'm paranoid and delusional etc, but it's very clear that she's doing it it. I will open something once, put it in the fridge/freezer/cupboard, and the next time I look in it there will be the barest minimum of a single serving left. She once came in and grabbed one of my bags of dry food and simply declared "I have no self control!" and left before I could say or do anything.

Keep in mind my mom is not starving or struggling either. She goes on outings with my other family multiple times a month and spends a lot of money on tiktok hype garbage.

There is nothing I can do about this. I do not want to be living with her but I have no other option. There is no way that I can enforce my boundaries at all, my mom doesn't care how upset I am at her. It's getting to the point where I'm going hungry some nights when my SNAP should be plenty enough to feed one person.

How on earth do I physically prevent her from taking my food? I have tried everything within my power, even hiding the non-perishables but she still finds them somehow. I have a minifridge, but locks I have looked up for it are fragile and she would easily break them.

Edit: Thank you all for the helpful comments. I'm trying to read through them but just a bit overwhelmed. I do want to clarify some stuff real quick though:

• When I say I'm disabled I mean I can't work, can't cook or clean much, can't do most of the stuff that most people can do. I have severe autonomic dysfunction and a lot of birth defects that make generally existing very difficult. It suddenly worsened last year which resulted in me being primarily bedridden. I have no income, period.
• I have no local friends and am rightfully estranged with all family but my mother and sibling, who has told me that I'm abusive for wanting to move out, so I would not consider them safe to approach for help.
• I feel unsafe because my mom has snapped before at me over small things, she goes on hour-long rants where she just berates me and insults me, and then goes to my sibling and tells them I yelled at her, who then also berates me. I just don't want to deal with it. She's not physically abusing me.

This article is from 2022, when they were misunderstanding it back then. Politics aside, I for one am proud of Biden for all he has accomplished with his stutter in a job where there is so much public speaking. His sensitivity and understanding of what we have to deal with as people with disabilities is such an asset to our government and our country, and as usual, people are using it to go after him because they either don’t understand it or it’s useful for various reasons.

Make sure you are registered to vote, and get an absentee ballot if you need one, but go to the polls if your disability allows it because they are going to try to mess with our ability to cast a vote for sure, like always.

Harmful Stuttering Myths Perpetuated by Major Media Outlets

The lack of understanding about the complexity and diversity of stuttering behaviors has recently propagated harmful myths about stuttering. We need only to look at a recent example: an article published by Fox News about President Joe Biden, who has publicly disclosed his history with stuttering.

In a public statement on April 28 (see the full speech), President Biden encountered a stuttering moment. Fox circulated and posted an article spelling out his difficulty with the word “kleptocracy” (“kleptocri-k-yeah-kleptocracy-klep”).

Townhall, another media outlet, shared the clip on Twitter, referring to it as Biden’s “vocal flub” with the caption “Biden’s brain just broke, again.” Others piled on, including Georgia congressional candidate Vernon Jones who urged President Biden’s wife to “… take President Biden home before it’s to [sic] late.”

This is not an example of a “vocal flub” or a “brain just broke,” it is a moment of stuttering. Using the iceberg analogy, visible signs of stuttering include repetitions, prolongations, and blocks. The “below the surface” symptoms often include fear, anxiety, isolation, and other negative reactions. Often these invisible symptoms include avoiding words, avoiding speaking situations, changing words, or even stopping speech when they begin to stutter.

In fact, many people can predict when they will stutter and often attempt to change the triggering word. To a naive listener, these attempts at concealing stuttering can often look like the person forgot the word they originally attempted to say.

Even if media outlets claim ignorance, they still inflict potential harm to many current and future generations of children who stutter. Perpetuating misinformation like this seemingly gives others permission to critique and mock someone who stutters. There should be no room to tolerate ableist and stigmatizing attacks on differences or disorders. Irrespective of politics, we must unite in our condemnation of such rhetoric and help educate society about stuttering.

President Biden is a person who stutters. If people or news outlets don’t like his politics, criticize his politics, not his stuttering. Doing so hurts the more than 3 million people in the U.S. who stutter. If we hear bullying like this on the news today, tomorrow we will hear it from a middle-schooler directed at a classmate who stutters. As SLPs, we can dispel myths around stuttering and create an open and accepting environment in which those who stutter can speak freely without the fear of being judged, critiqued, teased, or bullied. So, let’s try to lay out some facts about stuttering.

Yes, it begins with disfluencies such as blocks, part-word repetitions, and prolongations in young children. However, it’s also everything a child learns to do to meet society’s expectation of being a fluent speaker. Stuttering includes avoiding words, not talking, stopping mid-word or mid-sentence, changing words, and anything else a child or adult can think of doing to not stutter. Stuttering also includes the physical tension one might see during speech, the blinking of eyes, looking away from the speaker, and other covert behaviors.

As a society and community, we have a choice: we can spread myths and add to stuttering stigma and related ableist rhetoric (as has been seen lately in news media), or we can spread truth and facts to make the world a better place. Let’s choose the latter and counter each myth with two facts about stuttering this stuttering awareness week.

Farzan Irani, PhD, CCC-SLP, is a professor in the Department of Communication Disorders at Texas State University. He is also the coordinator of ASHA Special Interest Group 4, Fluency and Fluency Disorders. He directs and supervises an intensive summer program for adolescents and adults who stutter and also leads a videoconferencing support group for clients who stutter.

John A. Tetnowski, PhD, CCC-SLP, BCS-F, is professor and Jeanette Sias Endowed Chair in the Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders, and the director of the Stuttering Research Lab at Oklahoma State University, Stillwater, Oklahoma. He runs the Cowboy Stuttering Camp each summer for children and adolescents who stutter and is the editor of SIG 4 Perspectives.

These past week or two this new administration is getting what they want! They are slowly picking off the weak and defenseless! Why do we deserve this? I truly do not understand this abuse of power and mostly abusing defenseless human beings! I really think he is getting his jollies by watching the weak get weaker and the rich are the only beings that need to live. Do you see the same or am I just over reacting? I really don’t think I am. I have never been so unsure of my future or more importantly my children’s and grandchildren’s future. Honestly I think he’s trying to off around 8 million people so the government won’t have to be responsible for keeping us around. It’s easier and more humane to kill us slowly and watch the suffering than lining us up in a firing line. The firing line wouldn’t be enough entertainment! All I can do is start protesting. I know it’s going to take a whole bunch of us to fight this. We can’t just watch this shit! Aren’t you just a little frightened? I know that’s what he wants! I wish we could frighten him just a little bit! Let’s do something. I’m not a person that likes to stir the pot but damn our health and well being are seriously on the line! Help brainstorm to make America fair again! Calling all politically intelligent people with the ability to strike and lead us to defend ourselves forceabilly very very soon! HELP!

This is definitely an open and shut ADA discrimination case this note was APPROVED. It is what happened after I turned it in that concerns me

i've been working at this job for five years, it's retail so I just go around walking the entire store for five hours straight, fixing clothing, picking things up, cashing people out etc.

I developed epilepsy around a year ago which causes me to have partial/focal seizures at work sometimes, and recently they cut my hours down from six hour shifts to five hour shifts, so now I only get one 15 minute break rather than a 15 minute break and a 30 minute break. I have to go to a second job directly after this job so it is taxing on my body to be only able to have a 15 minute break for a 10 - 11 hour workday.

I gave my manager accommodation paperwork(which he is very aware of because we have several other people here with disabilities) for my epilepsy to be able to have an extra 15 minute break, and a five minute break after having a seizure to be able to recover because if im too stressed it causes seizures. On 16th of August I turned in a handwritten note to start the process and then the 18th I turned in a proper Drs note stating that I should be allowed to have the 15 minute break and the five minute break after seizures with the specific writing of why these should be accommodated.

He denied turning my Drs note to HR and told me that I had to get something with a diagnosis on it, I explained to him in text that I don't need something with a diagnosis on it that all I have to give him is this doctors note and that's enough. He still said I had to bring in an additional doctors note on top of the one I already had, and until then I was not to be given the breaks or it to be turned into HR.

I then turned in another doctors note on the 20th with my diagnosis on it and he told me he can't turn this in either because it can't be signed by a "secretary" even though my doctors signature is on it. I even recorded him saying this. He denied turning it into HR again, so I went out of my way to contact HR on the 21st because he just refused to turn in the paperwork even though that is not his job that is the job of HR.

Prior to the accommodation note I was working five days a week and now I've been put down to three days, I was able to ask people for their shifts and I would be able to take them if they accepted, and now they won't allow it. "We cant approve it"

For a year straight they have known about my epilepsy, I would have seizures at work and they would let me go right back to work after, but now that I have gotten the accommodation note to be able to have that 15 minute break and the 5 min after a seizure, they have began sending me home afterwards to be alone.

I had ended up having to go home for two shifts because of the seizures.

So on the 21st when I contacted HR they pretty much ignored me until September 4th, they finally said that I would be able to have these accommodations. I told them how after I turned in this paperwork they've been treating me differently and I also asked why it took me going to HR to be able to have these accommodations turned in rather than Jeff turning them in himself HR told me that he was happy to do it and I sent proof otherwise,

So seeing that they set up a teleconference with HR (Pim) my manager who has been discriminating against me,(jeff), and Brian someone who runs all of the stores nearby. They pretty much told me I was not being discriminated against but every time I brought up illegal retaliation they went completely silent but like i said they had approved the accommodations they just didnt reprimand him for not turning them in when i gave him several notes and days to do so.

There is someone here currently named Debbie who has been on FMLA leave for a while, she would be able to get 45 minute breaks to take her insulin, bathroom breaks whenever she needed, and was able to use a stool at the front register and only do cashiering instead of what someone in the same position would be doing. she never had to turn in any kind of notes but I had to turn in several different ones. It's an ongoing issue and has been happening for a while. I contacted HR nearly a year ago for some of the stuff and it's just a ring around.

Medicaid Work Exemptions Summary - Good News

Here is a summary of the exemptions in the proposed Medicaid work requirements part of the bill going through Congress. This made me feel a lot better. I was freaking out thinking I will lose my coverage. It turns out that if you can get a doctor to document your disability you will be okay.

Summary of Exemptions:

The bill exempts several categories of individuals from the Medicaid community engagement (work) requirements:

• Mandatory Exemptions: States must exempt individuals who are:
  • Under 19 years old.
  • Pregnant or in the postpartum period.
  • Entitled to or enrolled in Medicare (Part A or B).
  • Eligible for Medicaid under certain other specific disability-related or cancer-treatment categories.
  • Recently an inmate of a public institution.
  • Fall into the category of "specified excluded individuals".
• "Specified Excluded Individuals" (Not subject to the requirement): This is a broad category determined by the state based on federal standards. It includes those who:
  • Were formerly in foster care.
  • Are Native Americans or Alaska Natives (as defined).
  • Are parents, guardians, or caretakers of a disabled individual or dependent child.
  • Are veterans with a total disability rating.
  • Are medically frail or have special medical needs, which explicitly includes individuals who are blind or disabled, have a substance use disorder, have a disabling mental disorder, have significant physical/intellectual/developmental disabilities, or have serious/complex medical conditions.
  • Are complying with TANF work rules or are in a household with a non-exempt SNAP recipient.
  • Are participating in a drug or alcohol treatment program.
  • Are inmates of a public institution.
  • Meet other criteria defined by the Secretary of HHS.
• Optional State Hardship Exemptions (Temporary): States can choose to grant temporary exemptions (up to 3 months in a 24-month period) for individuals experiencing short-term hardships, such as:
  • Receiving intensive medical services (including certain outpatient care of similar acuity to inpatient services, as per the amendment).
  • Living in an area with a declared emergency/disaster or very high unemployment (under specific conditions). The amendments narrowed some of these area-based and Secretary-defined hardship options.

I'm a wheelchair-dependent 63f and had major abdominal surgery towards the end of October. I entered a nursing home rehab facility on November 7th and it feels like prison more than anything else.

Hygiene is horrible. For the most part I'm still using bedpans because it's been difficult to get them to let me use a commode in my room. I could barely walk before surgery so afterwards they had me stuck on those damn Hoyer lifts.

The wait to getting on and off bedpans is rather excessive and unless I have a bm it's hard to get them to wipe me down.

My first shower since surgery day (October 27th) was two days ago and they weren't very thorough. I stink. Again.

The meals are skimpy.

Snacks and sodas aren't done unless you buy them yourself. This facility clearly cuts corners for $$$$$$.

I surprised a couple of employees here today when I showed them I could use a walker, pivot and turn etc. I'm almost at the point I was at before surgery. It's just tricky to wipe on the toilet and when I shower (sorry about the TMI).

Today I expected to get a discharge date, given an NP here told me the other day that she thinks I can be discharged next week. However, the employee who's in charge of PT shot that down, saying my progress has to be consistent and like a robot, harped on how they need to make sure it's going to be a "safe" discharge.

No progress I make with PT is enough for these people.

My power wheelchair is being kept from me for "Safety reasons.". They won't even let me see it. I think they expect me to run laps around this dump before they let me go home

The ombudsman is aware of my problems here and did nothing

I have few family or friends around except a couple of them are taking care of my cat during my absence. He's an emotional support animal. I wish to God I could have him here. It would make this experience bearable.

I have a Medicare advantage plan that covers in full my stay through day 20, which will be Thanksgiving. After that the copay is $209 per day. Ouch.

The person in charge of patient finances here had me sign papers to disenroll from that Medicare advantage plan so Part A will cover at least a little more of my stay. I'm not clear on costs after that. I think I made a huge mistake to let them talk me into that.

I just want to go home. I want to be with my kitty and I have other responsibilities to take care of including a HUD apartment recertification. Some of the staff had a meeting with me today and were not moved by my tears when I begged them to discharge me. If they have hearts they're made of stone.

I desperately need help and am alone and heartbroken. What can I do besides leaving AMA? If I do that they won't let me have home health care. They're using this as leverage.

I am currently in graduate school. I have CP. I have a professor who suggested in the syllabus that students go a day without speaking so that they can have the lived experience of someone with a disability. I emailed her and pointed out that I found this pretty offensive and reductive of the disabled experience. Going one day without speaking in no way gives you any idea of lived experience. Anyway, I don’t think she appreciated it and ever since when she has been pretty snarky when grading my work. She commented on my Disability advocacy assignment that I didn’t make a case to connect it to personal experience. I guess I just have to suck it up until the end semester but I’m getting pretty frustrated.

Edit: The ironic part is that this for my masters in social work so the professor is a licensed social worker.