I wanted to pop on the blog today to give you guys an update. I’m working on making some changes to the blog and how it’s run and since this year has already been rough with the number of posts and the rebrand, now seemed like the time to do it. I won’t give all the details yet, but some cool things are coming. Just hold tight as we get things going.
I have been quiet for the past few months. I had my disability hearing in December and spent until January worrying about what actually happened and what it all meant. Then Wizards of the Coast came out with OGL 1.1 and 1.2, which would have changed the table-top role-playing game community before backpedaling that decision and putting the system reference document they had been trying to lock down into the creative commons. I had felt so much pressure building up and started feeling guilty for letting my blog and my business slide.
This guilt has been hanging around as my symptoms took a turn for the worse. In my attempts to recover some of my strength and systems, I got back into reading The Body Keeps The Score by Bessel van der Kolk, M.D. In this reading, I reached a chapter that talked about how we can get stuck in trauma when we are left to deal with something traumatic on our own. When we lack the support of others, we can push aside our feelings about what happened to just suck it up and get on with life. This reminded me of why I created this blog. I had created this blog to help others who struggle with disabilities know they aren’t alone. Even if you don’t have supportive people around you, I hope to help others find some of the supportive communities that exist online. While we may be physically distant, we can connect with others who have our struggle through places like Instagram and Twitter (less so since Musk but we’re still there).
If you are feeling alone, come find me on Instagram along with other great creators like @the.annegirl, @the_chronic_notebook, @katethealmostgreat, @wheelsnoheels, or even myself @nerdoutofspoons. Many of us share our experience there. You don’t have to rely entirely on yourself. There are others out there who understand your struggle and share tips for a better life. I hope you can join us there and find a community that will help you feel less alone.
If you’ve been around for a while, you may have noticed that the site has changed and that Dungeons & Disabilities now redirects to Nerd Out of Spoons. I wanted to take a few minutes to explain why this move is happening and why I haven’t been around as much recently on this blog.
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The holiday season is almost upon us. With Black Friday in less than a week and Cyber Monday a little over a week away, I figured now is a good time to go over some ideas that I have for gifts for disabled people or for people with chronic illnesses. I have affiliate links to some products throughout the post and if you buy through the link, that will help support this blog through the coming year.
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November tends to be a hard month for me. Between day light savings time, the changing weather, and NaNoWriMo, I frequently end up feeling a bit worse overall. This is where my emotional support dog, Princess Buttercup Puppers III, helps a lot. She can help calm me down when I’m feeling overstimulated, be a companion when I’m hurting, and help brighten my day with her presence. This prompted a discussion with my child about service animals and why I don’t have one, along with what my dog being an emotional support animal actually means. I realized there are a lot of myths and misinformation about service animals, emotional support animals, and therapy animals and how they differ so I looked at some of the most common myths around service animals and emotional support animals and explain the truth behind the myth.
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I have spent the last few weeks buried in paperwork of various forms. Most of it has involved preparing for my disability hearing later this year. But as I went through all my records finding the ones that show my situation best, I realized there are a lot of reasons it’s important to keep good records. Like how taking notes at the table can help you remember the name of npcs or figure out puzzles easier, I found 10 ways that keeping good health records improves your life when you live with a disability.
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Since the start of the pandemic, it has become common for people to spend time on Twitter doomscrolling through the bad news that seems to never stop coming. Through social media, we get a glimpse into some of the worst parts of humanity and it can feel like the world is burning around us. However, we often lose sight that there is hope out there as well. Today I wanted to look at how we can find hope when we feel our world burning around us, because that hope will get us through.
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Recently, I’ve seen many people in my chronic illness support groups expressing that either their long-term relationships are falling apart or that they want to get out and date but worry about how their disability will interfere with being able to get a second date. I’ve been living with disabilities for multiple years and only met my current girlfriend about a year and a half ago so I’ve seen some misconceptions come up. I want to lay out the 7 big ones I see and explain why those misconceptions are nonsense.
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I have been applying for disability benefits since May of last year when my short-term disability from my job ran out. Throughout this process, I’ve also been working on building a business around my writing, as it’s been a lifelong dream to publish books. This has created a lot of interesting aspects in my life that many disabled people don’t face. However, the restrictions on disability benefits in the US clarify that if you want to lead a good life, you want as many options as you can get. I wanted to share my experiences with the process as I got my disability hearing date earlier this week and I wanted to give hope to others who are dealing with the process along with shedding some light on how the process and limits are harmful and need change.
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This week I have been struggling with what I suspect is bronchitis. With my normal energy being more limited, I’ve been struggling to get myself to write the blog post I was hoping to write this week. So instead I am spending some time sharing what some of my bad days look like. Having more bad days than good days lately, I feel like I’m able to share the reality of my struggles.
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