Director Asghar Farhadi's first idea for the movie was the image of a man washing his father, who had Alzheimer's. He built the rest of the film around that scene.
A Separation (2011) is the first Iranian film to win an Oscar 🏆 !.
A poisoned and sick mind, having all the illnesses of this world stuck inside it. Thinking and processing every little detail at night, laying in his bed not able to move, folded in half and completely conscious about his surroundings. Hearing whispers from the next room, knowing that he is all alone in the house. Arms coming out of the ceiling and loud knocks at his bedroom door keep him awake. He knows he finally lost his mind, but yet the nightmare continues till dawn, slowly losing his sanity little by little.
Big fan of when a character's grief/trauma/guilt manifests as physical symptoms. Big fan of characters keeping things so tight inside them that it makes them sick. Big fan of when the line blurs between a character's mental trauma and physical illness until it's hard to tell which is which anymore.
Today my therapist introduced me to a concept surrounding disability that she called "hLep".
Which is when you - in this case, you are a disabled person - ask someone for help ("I can't drink almond milk so can you get me some whole milk?", or "Please call Donna and ask her to pick up the car for me."), and they say yes, and then they do something that is not what you asked for but is what they think you should have asked for ("I know you said you wanted whole, but I got you skim milk because it's better for you!", "I didn't want to ruin Donna's day by asking her that, so I spent your money on an expensive towing service!") And then if you get annoyed at them for ignoring what you actually asked for - and often it has already happened repeatedly - they get angry because they "were just helping you! You should be grateful!!"
And my therapist pointed out that this is not "help", it's "hLep".
Sure, it looks like help; it kind of sounds like help too; and if it was adjusted just a little bit, it could be help. But it's not help. It's hLep.
At its best, it is patronizing and makes a person feel unvalued and un-listened-to. Always, it reinforces the false idea that disabled people can't be trusted with our own care. And at its worst, it results in disabled people losing our freedom and control over our lives, and also being unable to actually access what we need to survive.
So please, when a disabled person asks you for help on something, don't be a hLeper, be a helper! In other words: they know better than you what they need, and the best way you can honor the trust they've put in you is to believe that!
Also, I want to be very clear that the "getting angry at a disabled person's attempts to point out harmful behavior" part of this makes the whole thing WAY worse. Like it'd be one thing if my roommate bought me some passive-aggressive skim milk, but then they heard what I had to say, and they apologized and did better in the future - our relationship could bounce back from that. But it is very much another thing to have a crying shouting match with someone who is furious at you for saying something they did was ableist. Like, Christ, Jessica, remind me to never ask for your support ever again! You make me feel like if I asked you to call 911, you'd order a pizza because you know I'll feel better once I eat something!!
Edit: crediting my therapist by name with her permission - this term was coined by Nahime Aguirre Mtanous!
Edit again: I made an optional follow-up to this post after seeing the responses. Might help somebody. CW for me frankly talking about how dangerous hLep really is.
fuck you ageism fuck you life ending at 30 fuck you makeup industry forcing us to feel bad about a natural process fuck you hustle culture fuck you instagram fuck you youtube fuck you glorification and deification of youth fuck you who make people feel bad for not having "achieved anything" in their 20s fuck you people who peaked in high school and try to drag everybody down by insisting it's all downhill after 19
A year ago, tonight was the night, I tried to kill myself by overdosing on my antidepressant and antianxiety medication.
There are a lot of parallels between that night and tonight: I was alone in my room, I had smoked, I thought about how lonely I am even after being surrounded by people I love and who love me.
I was stuck in an overthinking loop that night, I just couldn't get out of it. My mind kept on telling me that there's only one way to end it so that's what I did. I tried to end everyone's misery (I thought I was a burden on everyone, that they would be better off without me) so I did what I did.
I ended up being a burden.
I got into emergency, then ICU, which was the loneliest I've ever felt.
After being at home, listening to my parents taunting me every chance they got, I kind of got better.
I'm not always happy but I'm also not crying my eyes out every night.
I'm just okay. Getting by.
I thought I'll cry tonight but nothing so far. Does that mean I've grown? Or am I stronger? Or I just don't care anymore.
Phobia Ular | Klasifikasi | Gejala | Penyebab | Cara Mengatasi
Disini kami akan menjelaskan kepada anda tentang salah satu jenis phobia yang ada didunia ini. Memang sudah menjadi hal yang normal apabila ada orang yang takut pada ular didunia ini, tetapi berbeda halnya bila anda lihat pada orang yang mengalami phobia.
Ophidiophobia
Namanya adalah Ophidiophobia yakni rasa takut yang berlebihan…
Sometimes I want to let the mental illness consume me fully so I can stop fighting and not be exhausted anymore. Sometimes I want to give up and feel the release.
hey if you ever feel like you're faking your pain/mental illness/any symptoms, or if you feel like no one understands or believes you. i do. i believe you. i love you and i hope you do what you can to take care of yourself <3
After two whole arcs of seeing him getting extremely traumatized, the blond guy finally gets to feel a little tiny itty bit of whimsy and joy as a little treat