Share your Disability (and comic/novel!)

Wumbl 2019-07-23 12:12:26 UTC #16

I have PTSD (RTS specific) and also suffer from Bipolar moods, and sensory/language processing problems.
The problem with Bipolar moods is that taking medication for your depression can only make you swing right into mania. It's a complex mood problem so it's not easy to treat.

My PTSD can cause anxiety spikes, anxiety attacks that vary in intensity and also flashback episodes.

Sensory/language processing affects everything I do. I can't use equipment or items that give me a negative sensory response because all my responses are extreme. If I catch a bad smell it can make me feel unwell, even if it's only a little. I can't use/wear/play anything that gives me a BadTexture.png because it causes constant misery. I can't be in a room that's too noisy or too quiet without getting sensory overload. I can't play certain games anymore (Marvel VS Capcom for example) because of too much happening on the screen, and whenever I play a game I have to adjust the colours or I struggle to see anything. If Street Fighter V doesn't have the gamma turned down, it makes me very confused.

I cope with my mental disadvantages by stimming normally - I use a tangle and some putty/slime kits. I really want to get a glitter/water ball, and some squishy things too. It helps me focus and steady my confused brain. I also practice various therapeutic exercises/treatments to help me keep my brain in order.

I have two comics at the moment. Art/writing is one of the few professions I can manage without suffering sensory overload, since most jobs available to people my age where I live are in noisy environments.

TopJimComics 2019-07-23 13:23:41 UTC #17

I have muscular dystrophy, a type called FSHD. It's a degenerative muscle disease where I gradually lose muscle strength (often asymmetrically). It started with me losing my ability to raise my arms above my head in high school, then my facial muscles got weak on my left side. Most recently (a couple years ago), I got foot drop in my right leg making it harder to walk. Overall, I'm tired and sore all the time and it just keeps getting worse with age.

I don't have any severe mental illness, but sometimes I feel like I have the "perfect storm" of minor ones. I have anxiety (not crippling) and depression, both of which are exasperated by my worry about disease and what muscle function I might lose next. And of course I have IBS to boot which is just raging all the time because of the emotional states.

I tried to write a comic once about it, but I just couldn't make it work. I always try to find humor in things, but it's really hard to laugh about this. All my comics are comedies, although I'm really only working on my main one right now.

I rarely talk about it because it brings up all the worries, but I really appreciate reading all the struggles we share and how we use our creativity to combat them.

Jim

baasinsimple 2019-07-23 14:28:52 UTC #18

Well, I'm Dyslexic with some PTSD and some extreme anxiety. It's whatever. I don't like to call it a disability because it really fucks with the positive mojo I'm trying to keep going. I just started some meds last month and I'm doing well because of it. I'm just gonna try to keep my creative momentum going.

DokiDokiTsuna 2019-07-23 15:29:13 UTC #19

It's kind of odd to think that (a) 99.99% of artists I know or have even heard of are working with some kind of disability and (b) I have...nothing to report.

At worst, I might have something undiagnosed that actually doesn't affect my life very much. And the few concrete things that have happened to me, I chalk up to university stress: most of them started roughly 3 years ago when I first entered this college business, and I'm betting my body will return to its natural healthy state when I finally get outta here...

I don't even have any 'work' injuries...my wrists and fingers still seem to be in good condition; most aches and pains are minor (if they occur at all) and disappear after a day or two of rest. If anything, my hands have gotten stronger: I spend much more time typing than I used to, and yet they don't get tired as easily anymore...

...Alright, I gotta stop. I think I'm just jinxing myself at this point, going on and on about how healthy I am...if today's the day I finally get hit by a bus, it was nice knowing y'all, and please hack my Google Drive and share my genius with the world...

beta1042 2019-07-23 15:50:28 UTC #20

I'd say the biggest "disability" I had was being pregnant. Luckily I had known it was coming since it took many failed tries to get pregnant so I had built a decent buffer by the time I got pregnant. But I also wanted to maintain my buffer while pregnant so I wouldn't have to go on a long hiatus after the birth of the baby(especiallly since i was prob a high risk pregnancy and most likely gonna have a c-sec which I did end up having). the first trimester was hard cause I was super sick all the time. I became a large "whale" suddenly by 30+weeks and I developed a strong "I don't give a f*ck" attitude. The copy pasta got abused, the anatomy, the line art, etc all got more lazy. The worst episode is going to be published on the 1st of august,] that update will be 80% copy paste... I just keep telling myself I'm 80 chapters in, my readers at this point art invested in the story not the art XD

KennDemon 2019-07-23 17:46:26 UTC #21

The first one I think of is my anxiety. Because of it, interacting with other people is incredibly difficult, and I second guess everything I do or say in someone else's presence. I have to challenge myself to use social media or interact online (like posting here), and sharing anything I've written is like "That's my challenge for the week, now I'll let myself avoid contact for five days". I've been working for years to overcome it, and I think I've made progress, but I still get my bad days.

I also have a learning disability that means I take longer to process information (doesn't help the anxiety), ADD, depression, and I disassociate from reality at the drop of a hat.

A lot of the time when I'm writing I'll give characters some of these challenges, both because it's something I understand and I find it a good way to work through my thoughts regarding my own challenges.

My novel The Voice has a character that I gave a lot of my anxiety related traits too, including my sudden panic attacks.

While I also have a few physical disabilities, I don't write about them as often. It's always been more important to me to express the disabilities that I felt had a larger impact on my life, and those are the mental ones.

PabloRomero 2019-07-23 22:00:45 UTC #22

No disabilty here. Some overweight but not enough to be disabled (still i need to lose weight)

Kann 2019-07-23 22:27:01 UTC #23

I don't have any major disabily, though I have many minor medical issues which get annoying sometimes. I'm overweight. Few years ago I used to even be over the "obesity" BMI number but it started to affect my health in general, so I decided to do something about it. I'm still dealing with high blood pressure because of it, but I'm on meds for that and I keep it under control now. Before I started taking meds I used to have severe headaches a lot.

I also have lower back pain. Once I had to prepare a buffer for a trip and I got hit with lower back pain, so while taking longer breaks to lie down and suffer, I managed to finish my page goal (Pages 10 to 16? from chapter VI if I remember correctly), though you can see my pain on them. xD

I also broke my bones in my right forearm and wrist when I was a dumb kid, so now my right hand is weaker and hurts randomly.

Also I have lots of allergies with the most severe being the grass pollen one. Nothing really 100% works to make it's symptoms stop.

Mentally wise I wasn't diagnosed with anything but wouldn't be surprised if I had ADD or ADHD since a lot of symptoms hit too close to home. o.o Though yeah, I need to get that checked first so I'd know if it's truth or too much internet.

N1ghtm4r3 2019-07-27 00:16:37 UTC #24

ADD and ADHD ,it can be a struggle to stay focused on my work as sometimes i get bored ,and or get distracted,I get allergies to but they don't hinder my art

Pencilz 2019-07-27 01:56:15 UTC #25

I've got OCD. It makes things very difficult and it's hard to concentrate and just push through working because I'm so preoccupied by obsessions/compulsions, mostly taking forever to do anything because I feel like if it's not "perfect" I shouldn't do it at all. Or redoing the same things over and over because it feels "wrong". And this doesn't just extend to art of course, sometimes I have to rearrange certain things until it feels right. It's mentally draining and takes up a lot of my time.

I also think I may have Aspergers but I haven't got that diagnosed yet.

ble 2019-07-30 19:01:02 UTC #26

Hipertension/high blood presure if that counts, it's more a condition than disability.

Kurisana 2019-08-06 04:11:49 UTC #27

I have ADHD,PTSD,ADD and my novel is "Don't want you to be lonely."
I don't have many written yet.
I'm planning something written on Steigg Larson XD.

Check out Don't want you to be lonely on Tapas https://tapas.io/series/Dont-want-you-to-be-lonely

Sada 2019-08-08 13:36:35 UTC #28

I'm OCD and I have migraines. Though the main issue I have that really interferes with my desire to create art/comics are my hand tremors. It makes things like inking, laying tones, coloring, etc. difficult to do at times, especially when the tremors get really bad.
I also recently injured my arm twice in a row and have been trying to take things slow while recovering from the injury.

KidJake 2019-08-08 14:49:06 UTC #29

I've got Tourette's Syndrome which has gotten bad enough that I'm not allowed behind the wheel anymore. Also have a wrecked hip and knee (from two completely different incidents), a bum shoulder (from yet another), fairly nasty arthritis in my hands from being an angry, rednecked little bastard in my youth and a slew of lung problems.

GrimRose 2019-09-19 18:13:21 UTC #30

ADHD and OCD. Its sometimes hard for me to get focused into my work because of it. I get so frustrated with myself sometimes for feeling like i've wasted so much time. I'm also extremely anxious. I often second guess what i am doing or have extreme aversion to talking to people for fear of saying something that might upset them.

Mostly sensory things bother me (my nails are too short or uneven, hair touching the back of my neck, some fabric textures bother me. And once i notice these things it can be hard to focus without getting severely frustrated.

When it comes to focus. I have a hard time remembering things or being organized. I have such a hard time starting to draw each morning. Just getting into a focus mindset is hard.

Only good thing that comes from this is the times where i am able to hyper focus on what i am drawing. It takes me at least a good hour or more to get in this zone but the amount of creative energy i draw is sometimes worth my frustrations.

I am trying to get better at giving myself a workspace that doesn't encourage my distracted nature and also giving myself different projects to creatively work on to keep my focus every day.

My current comic (a series of short stories) is a perfect example of how my mind operates. I'm always churning out a multitude of ideas or characters. I just need a smaller scale project to work on one at a time.

KyErva 2019-09-21 10:51:29 UTC #31

Major depressive disorder and generalized anxiety. Also have digestive issues likely linked to the disorders. I get so lazy and lack any motivation to do anything because of it and my anxiety causes me to question myself and my artistic ability. It's honestly awful and I know I pretty much only have myself to blame for getting in my head so much. But it also does help me relate to the dark themes in my writing so that's a plus. My whole novel is actually an analogy to how mental health can destroy ones well being. I think that's one reason I'm so proud of the project so far, cause it's the first thing that I've written I actually feel personally connected to.

silkier 2019-09-21 13:03:27 UTC #32

Ehlers Danlos with extreme hypermobility, which is crossing over in my main character. Only her pain descriptions are coming from reality though, everything else is clearly fiction It won't be referred to as EDS in the story though because it doesn't take place in a modern medicine world.

DualDragons 2019-09-21 15:03:44 UTC #33

I have autism too. Though it doesn't heavily affect my daily life, it still influences things like conversations and makes it a little harder for me to understand certain situations. Also I don't think people around me understand what autism really is because they apparently think it's a disease, which it's not.

I also went to a special high school for it, they had really tiny classes! Like nine people per class!

Though it is a disability, it's not that heavy (in my opinion). In that regard I feel a bit sorry for the people here whose disabilities really affect their lives.

(Oh yeah, here's the plug:)

Check out Rise of the Heroes on Tapas https://tapas.io/series/Rise-of-the-Heroes

arcojawa 2019-09-21 16:28:17 UTC #34

Autism here to. I was diagnosed with Asbergers on the tail end of them shifting it over to High-Functioning Autism. I've been wanting to re-diagnose for a while, just because I feel like that's something you should do every, like, 5 years or so.

The main character of my comic is written Autistic -though admittedly this was just because she's largely based on me and I was afraid it would become obvious and we'd have another instance of the Ambiguous Disorder trope which... honestly... little over-used these days. At first I just wanted to make it this little thing I nodded to at one point but I have been leaning into it a little more in upcoming pages:

racarter 2019-09-21 17:36:24 UTC #35

I have Narcolepsy, Cataplexy, Migraines, POTS*, Major Depression, Chronic Headaches, Carpal Tunnel (does that count?), Mild Anxiety (used to be worse, I was able to learn to lessen it) and probably Autism as well but I don’t have the money to see anyone about it. But I act under the assumption I am Autistic and use advice and such for it and it helps.

I also tend to just get hurt pretty bad when moving slightly sometimes. Threw my back out for a week because I bent over one day. Hurt me knee real bad cuz I turned funny, couldn’t walk well for a while.

I probably got other stuff wrong with me but I’m too poor to keep going back to specialists to find out exactly. I know I had a lot of trouble as a kid and I got told I had ADHD but I don’t think I do.

But I’m like always tired... always... it’s very tiring. Even with drugs. And most of my conditions like agitate each other, making things worse than they might be normally.

Frankly it’s a miracle I can even get anything done.

Anyway, it’s never stated in the comic itself but my MC, Roxanne, is Autistic. Annika has Depression. I’m planning to give another character Narcolepsy but it’s kinda hard to do because frankly it’s just too funny in fiction, even if it’s awful IRL. Like in Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigalo.

*Postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome
(It’s like a blood pressure thing that happens when I stand up after laying down or sitting down, I get lightheaded, sometimes I can’t see for half a second, I’ve fallen a few times)

I had a Cataplexy attack in a pool once. I was like drowning for two seconds. It was awful.