Honestly, I have been processing this article by Kathleen Stock for several days now. I couldn’t figure out what to say because this type of rhetoric and harmful ableist commentary directly contributed to me nearly dying from preventable complications caused by undiagnosed underlying health conditions when I was 27 years-old. This was 7 years ago. Additionally, the complications I faced as a young woman would have never happened had I been believed sooner. I have been through this way too many times. If the hospital I had gone to the week before had believed me, if the underlying health issues I had were diagnosed and treated sooner, perhaps I never would’ve needed mobility devices. Maybe I would’ve never gotten to this level of disability. Maybe I wouldn’t have become a young disabled woman. But systemic medical neglect and abuse led me here. it is the medical neglect I experienced throughout my entire life, but especially in my early adulthood that led to me nearly dying in 2019. And the thought process behind those decades of suffering, trauma and disbelief that I experienced was that I was “too young to be sick” and just “mentally ill”. it is painful to see this rhetoric continue onto the next generation of young women 💔. I do not want what happened to me to happen to other others and it is incredibly important that we denounce this article, @thetimes (who published it) and Kathleen Stock because this rhetoric is actually very dangerous, and my story is proof of that. Please share this. [ID: A video of Syanne, a disabled Afro-Indigenous Latina in her mid 30s. She is speaking directly into the camera, set to a lower angle with her phone on the table in front of her. She is wearing a blue t shirt and flannel pj pants. She seated in her power wheelchair, doing her makeup as she speaks.] #DisabilityJustice #BelieveWomen #ChronicIllnessAwareness #BabeWithAMobilityAid #KathleenStock - @syannebloom