How Cannabis Helped Me Reclaim Power in My Disability

Table of ContentsView AllTable of ContentsMia Mingus' “Access Intimacy"Unpacking Internalized AbleismFinding Disability Pride

Table of ContentsView All

View All

Table of Contents

Mia Mingus' “Access Intimacy”

Unpacking Internalized Ableism

Finding Disability Pride

For decades, I have encouraged both clients in my professional work as a social worker and loved ones in my personal life to benefit from cannabis use—especially when it provided relief from health concerns.

Despite this, it would still take years for me to reckon with that bias personally, as a woman of South Asian heritage who had taken in a great deal ofthe war on drugs propagandathat was a staple of my childhood.

As a disabled person who navigates migraines, sleep issues, back pain, etc., I have come to understand cannabis use as part of my evolving disability pride.

In fact, it hit me after missing my scheduled phone interview with a source for my first freelance writing gig at a dollar-per-word rate during a particularly terrible cycle of migraines and sleep issues fueling each other. After venting to my old colleague and friend shortly after this embarrassing incident, she revisited her earlier recommendation ofcannabidiol (CBD).

While she was not the first to suggest CBD use, it had always felt like too much to unpack all that I had been essentially brainwashed into believing was “drugs,” and that was aside from my concern regarding the cost.

How to Be An Ally During Disability Pride Month

I cannot recall when I first encountered the brilliance ofMia Mingus' concept of access intimacy, but it has often informed how I make sense of my place and that of loved ones in a world that deems us disposable.

If my partner was not the first to suggest cannabis for my sleep issues, he was undeniably the initial person who made me seriously consider trying it. I remember thinking that I was not due back to my university job for at least a week, so it would be a rare convenient time to attempt edibles and get comfortable with the idea of using cannabis.

The local dispensary would be out of many cannabis products over that holiday season, but especially edibles. By the time they were back in stock, my worry over finances was too steep to consider another expense. And back then, having not yet experienced thebenefits of cannabis useto manage pain, sleep, etc., exploration of CBD went on the back burner.

That missed interview would force me to reflect on how much had changed since my initial discussion with my partner about trying CBD. I no longer commuted hours daily to serve disabled students at an institution that targeted me relentlessly, so why not explore this?

From that point, I got my partner’s product recommendations and did my best to plan accordingly. In the event that I needed more time in between use of CBD edibles to be functional for freelance work, I trusted that I could rely on his knowledge to survive the process.

Learning to Accept a Visible Disability This Disability Pride Month

Disability Pride: The Strain of Trying to be Proud

During this time, I have thought a lot about how much less daunting life feels when it no longer includes the prospect of survivingchronic paindaily. In conversation with a friend after this realization, I commented about how my grandparents would disapprove of this development, to which she hilariously responded, “Not only that!”

After a few shared giggles, she continued in a much more somber tone to tell me that while she had never met my grandparents, she had heard enough stories of how they loved me unconditionally to believe that if THC could help me to cope with pain, they would want me to access that relief.

She had heard enough stories of how they loved me unconditionally to believe that if THC could help me to cope with pain, they would want me to access that relief.

The reason I feel compelled to share my story is that I know from my background as a mental health therapist howshamecan serve as a barrier to exploring resources even when they may assist us to navigate disabilities.

Although it often feels as if I have little control over dismantling the systems of oppression that harm the communities I hold dear after white supremacist workplace harassment has pushed me out of multiple jobs, my ability to get published on issues of marginalization provides an opportunity to assist others to unpack their unhelpful biases.

How Cannabis Helped Me Reclaim Power in My Disability

I share all these details because I know that the personal is always political, and I grasp that our liberation will never come from hoarding our insights about how to best survive oppression in the bodies we inhabit.

I am as knowledgeable about oppression as I have ever been, thanks to the experiential learning that comes from constructive dismissal, so I am well aware of how many factors are out of my control. In this way, a combination of CBD and THC products offers one of the few resources to help me survive this world with my critical mind in the body I inhabit.

Learning to Identify With a Disability That Isn’t Evident

1 SourceVerywell Mind uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read oureditorial processto learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy.Valentine D.Shifting the Weight of Inaccessibility: Access Intimacy as a Critical Phenomenological Ethos.Critically Sick: New Phenomenologies of Illness, Madness, and Disability. 2020;3(2):76-94. doi:10.5399/pjcp.v3i2.9

1 Source

Verywell Mind uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read oureditorial processto learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy.Valentine D.Shifting the Weight of Inaccessibility: Access Intimacy as a Critical Phenomenological Ethos.Critically Sick: New Phenomenologies of Illness, Madness, and Disability. 2020;3(2):76-94. doi:10.5399/pjcp.v3i2.9

Valentine D.Shifting the Weight of Inaccessibility: Access Intimacy as a Critical Phenomenological Ethos.Critically Sick: New Phenomenologies of Illness, Madness, and Disability. 2020;3(2):76-94. doi:10.5399/pjcp.v3i2.9

Meet Our Review Board

Share Feedback

Was this page helpful?Thanks for your feedback!What is your feedback?HelpfulReport an ErrorOtherSubmit

Was this page helpful?

Thanks for your feedback!

What is your feedback?HelpfulReport an ErrorOtherSubmit

What is your feedback?