{"id":214,"date":"2017-01-17T23:24:00","date_gmt":"2017-01-17T23:24:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/briebeau.com\/thoughty\/2017\/01\/17\/gaming-with-fibromyalgia-x-posted-imaginary-funerals\/"},"modified":"2021-11-16T00:41:13","modified_gmt":"2021-11-16T05:41:13","slug":"gaming-with-fibromyalgia-x-posted-imaginary-funerals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/briebeau.com\/thoughty\/2017\/01\/gaming-with-fibromyalgia-x-posted-imaginary-funerals\/","title":{"rendered":"Gaming with Fibromyalgia (x-posted Imaginary Funerals)"},"content":{"rendered":"

This post has been crossposted from the Imaginary Funerals blog that has since been discontinued. Posts are hosted on the Imaginary Funerals G+ page<\/a>. <\/span><\/span><\/i>

<\/span>
<\/span>GAMING WITH FIBROMYALGIA (link to main host)<\/a><\/span><\/b>

<\/b>by <\/i>+<\/span>Brie Sheldon<\/a><\/span><\/i> (originally posted January 24, 2014)<\/i>

A little background:<\/span>

I was diagnosed with fibromyalgia when I was 12. It was a lousy diagnosis to get at such a young age, but the symptoms were pretty clear and they\u2019ve only gotten worse since then. If you want to know more about fibromyalgia, a quick internet search should answer any questions you have.<\/span>

I started tabletop gaming around age 15 or 16 (I\u2019d done text RPGs for years by that point). At that point, my fibro wasn\u2019t too extreme, but I still dealt with some of the problems \u2013 leg cramps, soreness, and fibro fog. These things have increased in severity and frequency since then.<\/span>

I know a lot of people have it way worse than me, but I wanted to share my experience. Maybe it will help other people, and maybe it will help con organizers, GMs, and other players understand the difficulties people like me face. So, what\u2019s so hard about gaming with fibromyalgia?<\/span>

Managing climate control. Holy crap is this hard! I don\u2019t know if gamers just run hot or what, but virtually every gaming space I\u2019ve ever been in is too cold for me. A lot of people game in basements, which (even when finished) are often cold and sometimes damp, and it leaves me aching and sore and generally pretty miserable. This year at cons I ran into the problem of it simply being way too cold in some of the rooms, so by the end of sessions I was cramped up and ready to go lie down. But sometimes, you can\u2019t lie down \u2013 you have to keep going, especially when you feel the social pressure to be involved or just really want to be involved.<\/span>

Standing or sitting for long periods. This is something I\u2019ve complained about before, but, super long lines for badges? Standing in food lines? Waiting outside con rooms? Yeah, standing for like 20 minutes is rough. My legs cramp up, my back sometimes seizes, and there\u2019s nowhere to go and nothing to do. Accommodating disabled people is not something cons are great at. It\u2019s troublesome, as well, when you don\u2019t have a visible disability, like me, or when (like me) you don\u2019t have special tags designating you disabled-enough-for-people-to-care. Likewise, sitting at a table (especially in the aforementioned cold rooms) can mean that standing up is a struggle, and it is simply embarrassing to be a 20-something woman who can\u2019t stand up from the table without wobbling. People stare.<\/span>

Fibro fog. This is probably one of the toughest things. The pain and stiffness I deal with every day in every type of situation, so it becomes a quiet echo of my life, \u201cpain, pain, pain\u201d beneath my breath every moment. You kind of get used to it. The fog, though, isn\u2019t constant, and is worse during times of anxiety and stress. Basically it makes it hard to focus and makes me seem dumber because I can be slow to respond or get confused. For the longest time I didn\u2019t understand what it was, but now I\u2019m pretty familiar with the feeling. I try to hide it because it\u2019s legit one of the things about my illness that makes me feel the most stupid and useless. Ever try adding together dice or adjusting target numbers when your brain feels like it\u2019s stuffed full of cotton? It\u2019s like that all the time. It\u2019s kind of like when you have a sinus headache or like a post-narcotic headache. (This is also a problem when navigating conventions because I get lost and lose track of time very easily when the fog sets in.)<\/span>

Feeling singled out. I rarely game with other people with disabilities, just because of the way my circles have worked. This means that I\u2019m often the only one at the table who needs accommodations. I\u2019m the only one who needs to be given a break or time to stretch during long gaming sessions. I\u2019m the only one who needs help doing basic addition when my fog is too foggy. It\u2019s just me sitting there having trouble. So far my groups have been pretty great about it, but that doesn\u2019t make it easier for me to feel good about it. An example: asking people to please grab me a drink because that extra walking today just is a bad idea. Most of my group would happily do so, but that doesn\u2019t make me less embarrassed or make me feel less like they should hate me for taking advantage of their kindness.<\/span>

Gaming with fibromyalgia isn\u2019t easy. It\u2019s got a lot of pitfalls and there aren\u2019t really bonuses for being disabled.<\/span>
<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

This post is free, but this blog is supported by the community on patreon.com\/briecs<\/a>. Tell your friends! <\/span>

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<\/span>If you’d like to be interviewed for Thoughty, or have a project featured, email contactbriecs@gmail.com<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This post has been crossposted from the Imaginary Funerals blog that has since been discontinued. Posts are hosted on the Imaginary Funerals G+ page. GAMING WITH FIBROMYALGIA (link to main host)by +Brie Sheldon (originally posted January 24, 2014)A little background:I was diagnosed with fibromyalgia when I was 12. It was a lousy diagnosis to get at such … Continue reading “Gaming with Fibromyalgia (x-posted Imaginary Funerals)”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[390],"tags":[81,79,28,31,2,30,17,47,48,8,15,12,33,18],"class_list":["post-214","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-archive","tag-accessibility","tag-accommodation","tag-briecs-on-design","tag-disabilities","tag-disability","tag-diversity","tag-gaming","tag-larp","tag-live-action-roleplaying-games","tag-roleplaying-games","tag-rpg","tag-rpgs","tag-social-justice","tag-tabletop-rpgs"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paHOcG-3s","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":212,"url":"https:\/\/briebeau.com\/thoughty\/2017\/01\/of-three-minds-x-posted-imaginary-funerals\/","url_meta":{"origin":214,"position":0},"title":"Of Three Minds (x-posted Imaginary Funerals)","author":"Beau J\u00e1gr Sheldon","date":"January 18, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"This post has been crossposted from the Imaginary Funerals blog that has since been discontinued. 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To leave some cash in the tip jar, go to http:\/\/paypal.me\/thoughty.If you'd\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Archive"","block_context":{"text":"Archive","link":"https:\/\/briebeau.com\/thoughty\/category\/archive\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":86,"url":"https:\/\/briebeau.com\/thoughty\/2018\/05\/leading-with-class\/","url_meta":{"origin":214,"position":3},"title":"Leading with Class","author":"Beau J\u00e1gr Sheldon","date":"May 8, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Hello all,For the past several months I've been gearing up to start a new project called Leading with Class. Leading with Class is a web series I'm doing to teach leadership theory and practice using roleplaying games! It's so exciting to have it together!There's a Patreon for the project and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Archive"","block_context":{"text":"Archive","link":"https:\/\/briebeau.com\/thoughty\/category\/archive\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1694,"url":"https:\/\/briebeau.com\/thoughty\/2019\/12\/thoughtys-a-new-year-for-aven-bundle\/","url_meta":{"origin":214,"position":4},"title":"Thoughty’s A New Year for Aven Bundle","author":"Beau J\u00e1gr Sheldon","date":"December 19, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"Today I'm starting a bundle to support the awesome Aven, a great game designer and one of the people who makes Big Bad Con a great space for people like me, in this coming new year - check out work from Aven, me, Meguey Baker, Paul Czege, and many other\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Archive"","block_context":{"text":"Archive","link":"https:\/\/briebeau.com\/thoughty\/category\/archive\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1435,"url":"https:\/\/briebeau.com\/thoughty\/2019\/07\/friday-hi-day-youtube-post-live\/","url_meta":{"origin":214,"position":5},"title":"Friday Hi-Day YouTube Post Live!","author":"Beau J\u00e1gr Sheldon","date":"July 12, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"https:\/\/youtu.be\/Tfn7OHqQ_HQ","rel":"","context":"In "Archive"","block_context":{"text":"Archive","link":"https:\/\/briebeau.com\/thoughty\/category\/archive\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/img.youtube.com\/vi\/Tfn7OHqQ_HQ\/0.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/briebeau.com\/thoughty\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/214","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/briebeau.com\/thoughty\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/briebeau.com\/thoughty\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/briebeau.com\/thoughty\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/briebeau.com\/thoughty\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=214"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/briebeau.com\/thoughty\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/214\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/briebeau.com\/thoughty\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=214"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/briebeau.com\/thoughty\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=214"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/briebeau.com\/thoughty\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=214"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}