"How to maintain mental health as a person with a disability" by Carol Constantino

The poet already said: "Life is not always a bed of roses", proof of this is this very delicate political moment that we are living, due to which so many people are worn out and afraid of what still lies ahead. As if that were not enough, we need to deal with our internal conflicts and still face the old battles imposed by society.

Day after day, women face sexism, and also a whole overlapping of oppressions, as in the case of black women, to which the fight against racism is added, and, for us, women with disabilities, the fight against capacitism.

A mentally healthy person has quality of life and good emotional development, which enables him to overcome various difficulties in the best possible way and maintain positive thoughts about himself and the world.

With women with disabilities this is no different, however, many end up having a mental health shaken by not finding similarities of their conflicts with the conflicts of other women. Even when they seek help from professionals, they feel misunderstood, and, in fact, they are, because few people really care about understanding what each one of them goes through.

In this whole scenario, how to maintain, and help maintain, the mental health of women with disabilities? Talking about her!

The reality of women with disabilities
Capacitism is the name given to one of the forms of manifestation of social prejudice against people with disabilities and is related to the constant judgment that society makes about the ability of these people to be or do something.

Every day women with disabilities hear questions such as: "How did you manage to get pregnant?", "How did you get such a handsome partner?", "How do you manage to raise your child? ? Who helps you?". Do you realize that while these questions sound ableist, they are also sexist?

Disabled women are doubly vulnerable and discriminated against, in addition to having a disability that makes them targets of capacitism, they are also women, which makes them victims of machismo. At the same time, there are many cases of women with disabilities who are also black and experience, concomitantly, racism. These are some of the possible overlaps of discrimination that fall on people with disabilities, creating situations of multiple or aggravated discrimination.

Beauty standards also weigh on women with disabilities, the self-demand for "perfect" bodies ends up being so great that they avoid looking at themselves as much as possible, as they do not recognize bodies that are the same as theirs.

This charge comes not only from ourselves, but also from other people. I remember participating in a conversation in which a wheelchair user stated that she refused to be photographed in her entire body because she "hated" her belly - practically every person in a wheelchair is overweight for sitting down, it's common. A psychology professional was present and I felt confident that he was going to say something positive, but do you know what he said? "So and so, maybe you try to follow a diet, I can give you mine. Lose your belly fast..."

I believe that these impositions and discrimination experienced by these women occur in the most veiled of all ways and, what is worse, they are far from being deconstructed, as there are few places that discuss the topic and the participation of women with disabilities in the feminist universe is lacking.

We know that everyone goes through some suffering at certain stages of life, but we cannot disregard the fact that this sexist, ableist and racist society (to point out some forms of discrimination) in which we live leads to mental illness for women with disabilities.

It is extremely important to recognize and legitimize these experiences and understand the need to care for and contribute to good mental health for all of us!

Finally, here are some tips on how to stay mentally healthy:

- Keep positive feelings with yourself, with other people and with life;

- Accept yourself and other people with their qualities and limitations;

- Avoid consumption of alcohol, cigarettes and other drugs;

- Do not use medicines without medical prescription;

- Practice safe sex;

- Reserve time in your life for leisure, living with friends and family;

- Maintain good eating habits, sleep well and practice physical activity regularly.

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Carol Constantino is a Social Work student, blogger and wheelchair user since she was a child, as she was born with muscle atrophy. On her blog she shares everything related to wheelchair users and other disabilities. In addition to posting stories of other wheelchair users from all over Brazil. Follow her on INSTAGRAM , like her page on FACEBOOK and access her BLOG .

Illustration by Paloma Santos , undergraduate student, illustrator, wheelchair user and feminist. "In my work as an illustrator I try to represent female diversity". Follow her on INSTAGRAM and like her on FACEBOOK .