This is such a complicated question for me right now. I took over a month off from worrying about patreon and having a social media presence and posting and engagement and pretty much anything to do with being online. I want to say it was about our move into our new home and the chaos of having renovations done while working full time from home with 6 animals and two additional human guests but...that aint really it y'all! The truth is, I took some time away because I was feeling pretty dang low about myself.
When we moved into this house, I knew the stairs would be difficult. But I didn't know how difficult or in what capacity. I didn't realize that the loss of mobility, having not regularly used stairs for over a year while in "the panini" would actually create a physical change in my body. I lost the muscles around my knees and in my thighs and hips that one uses when they go up and down stairs. My knees were not ready for daily stairs. Our new home has steps at every entry, and I thought it would just take a little time to adjust and gain the strength I needed, but I actually found myself with a debilitating knee injury and an abrupt slip into a depression I've never felt.
Physically - I couldn't walk around without pain. The clicks and the pops were excruciating and I kept being told it was "normal and part of healing." I couldn't sleep without pain, couldn't lay...it's like I could never find relief. I also couldn't shower, which brought up all new hygiene issues. And I couldn't help with unpacking boxes or moving furniture, which wasn't great for feeling like a reliable partner. I couldn't help with the dogs and I couldn't stop talking about how bad everything was. Emotionally, I was even more wrecked by it. And it scared me. It still scares me. I felt worthless. And I was treating my loved ones like they were the problem. I found myself grumpy and with a resentful victim-like attitude that was hindering me from showing up for myself and for my people. I wasn't being who I wanted to be in the world and couldn't see hope of my situation changing.
A big part of this is that I also felt like a sham, as "Comfy Fat," to be struggling so deeply with lack of self worth while I couldn't walk or shower. I kept telling myself that
I'm supposed to be a resource for folks struggling with this kind of thing, while also hating myself for being such a crab and "letting myself get to this point." There's a lot of shame there. I've never felt such shame about myself before. And it felt disingenuous to preach self love, kindness, and advocacy while I couldn't seem to conjure it up for myself. I'm not an expert at living life comfortably while fat. I'm just a fat trans person with
some lived experience. I have
some knowledge about
some things, but the world is so big and the possibilities are endless. I can never know all of the answers ahead of time. There's always more learning to do.
Thankfully I've been going to physical therapy and have seen really great improvement with my knees over the past few weeks. We even moved my office down to the basement and I'm finding myself sore at the end of the day but not
injured. I'm taking things slow, thinking very intentionally about each and every step and stair. This injury really terrified me. It brought out parts of me and my values that I think need some healing.
What do you believe in? I keep asking myself this question. If I had to choose values I align with, what would they be? What am I aiming for? Peace? Collaboration? Capital? Health? Self reflection? Compassion? Resilience? Do I value movement? Stability? Access? Challenges? Consistency? If I truly believe others have worth outside of what they can physically do, where did the deep dark depressive monster crawl up from when I was injured?
Am I back on patreon? Not sure! Definitely not at full force. I'm thinking of starting an "Ask J column," for a while. I love to write and answer prompts/discussion questions and feel like short Q&A's on IG don't give me the opportunity to elaborate. Want to read about a topic in particular from me? Send questions to
j@comfyfat.com and I'll answer here on patreon and keep you anonymous <3