In honor of Dysautonomia Awareness Month, we’re going to discuss dysautonomia and the ways it can present in different people, both on its own and in conjunction with other disorders.

What I would like to see is, at the same time that you’re going through rehab, that you’re getting constant reinforcement that it is OK to be a person with a disability or with an impairment. It is not embarrassing to ask for help. You are not a burden if you need something, ever. And what disabled people need is not special. You don’t have special needs, you’re not a ‘special person’ - you are a person who has a specific need around your disability

We are going to be talking about mental health, why therapy could be helpful to anyone — mental health diagnosis or not — and ways to make therapy more accessible to people with disabilities. For this, the interview will be with a clinical psychologist who, in the interests of full disclosure, I will tell you now has been my closest friend for almost 25 years, Dr. Erica Essary, Psy.D.

This isn’t an episode of the podcast, not really. This is more of a side note and an apology for an unplanned three month hiatus.

In this episode, we are going to be talking about keeping it together; keeping up with all the little changes that happen when a new chronic illness diagnosis or disability happens. You start with problem X, but that leads to new symptoms that could be problem Y. You go to a new specialist who sends you for new tests, or gives you a new meds to try. And then, the medication might have a side effect that you need to control, so that’s more doctors and maybe additional treatments — where does it end?

In this episode, we are going to be talking about Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome, or EDS. There are many types of EDS, but they all stem from the same cause: improperly made collagen in the body. There’s 28 different type of collagen, and each one has a different effect if there’s an error in the genetic code, resulting in a wide range of possible symptoms for people with some form of EDS. We'll talk about some of the most common symptoms and our top tips and tricks on coping with them.

In this episode, we are going to be talking about autism, also called Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), and what it’s like to realize, as an adult, that not only are you non-neurotypical but that you are, in fact, autistic. Includes interviews with an #ActuallyAutistic man diagnosed as an adult, and a clinical therapist who gives some insight into the diagnostic process.

In this episode, we have a special guest: we are going to be talking with filmmaker Jen Brea. Jen has ME/CFS, and while making a documentary about the progress of her condition from first symptoms through diagnosis and beyond, she did most of that work from her bed.

In this episode, we’re going to discuss a thing we all have to do, but that some of us have real trouble with once our chronic illnesses or disabilities change everything: sleeping.

Finding the little ways you can adjust your life to make it easier to cope with new illnesses or disabilities.