Crosses to bear, and messages from migraines and stuff
I don't know whether there was one precipating event or a coincidental confluence of things, but people have been posting hither and yon about the assumption that anything that helps you deal with a physical or mental condition is a 'crutch', which the Truly Strong and Determined person will endeavour to do without.
As people have already commented, wow, what a really bad metaphor that is anyway once you start thinking about the literal uses of a crutch as assistive technology.
And I remember a comment to a post of mine at some point about the sheer well-meaning authorially-approved cruelty of the parents who persuaded Ethel May (in Charlotte Yonge's The Daisy Chain and sequels) that even though she was severely myopic (and surely that had a lot to do with the clumsiness for which she got criticised?) she should endeavour to refrain from wearing glasses. Yes, on reflection this is even worse than the reproofs for trying to keep up with her brother's academic achievements instead of concentrating on her domestic duties.
When did the idea that it was okay to wear spectacles (rather than a sign of moral weakness) finally gain widespread acceptance? Because by the 1920s one of the arguments that was being put forward by advocates of birth control against claims that 'tes flyin' in the face of nature was that did their opponents not wear glasses? How was that natural? it was the beneficient development of science, etc, etc.
(Not that people thought being myopic was entirely okay - eny fule seem to no these days about M Stopes dissing on her prospective daughter in law for her 'hideous specs', but a number of interwar eugenists, including the Communist Dr Eden Paul, were all about short sight as one of the genetic evils of modern society.)
People have also been posting about migraine. What has massively improved my life (besides, you know, glasses to correct my extreme short sight) has been a) effective migraine prophylaxis and b) effective (providing I take it early enough) treatment for attacks that do happen.
There was once a point when I was encountering the claim that Migraines were sending A Message that one needed to hearken to.
On reflection, the ratio of noise to signal on that was so enormous that any message except 'Can it please be over?' got effectively drowned out. I'm not denying that there was an emotional component affecting frequency, which halved once I quit the Slow Motion Train-Wreck Relationship, but they did not, in fact, cease entirely.
I will concede that possibly my slump into depression c. 1980 was sending me a message, but the message was not 'Tough it out', but 'get some anti-depressants to get yourself together and get into therapy'.
There may be times when suffering is inevitable, occasions when it is even necessary. It is, however, not in and of itself a good thing. Things that reduce it are good things.
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