Brianna Albers (she/her) is a crip-cyborg storyteller living in Minneapolis-St. Paul. She was diagnosed with spinal muscular atrophy type 2 in 1996 and lives with co-occurring physical and mental health conditions. By day she works as an advocate, bridging disability and mental health awareness to empower people to live their best lives; by night, she dabbles in imagination, and is currently writing “An Angel in the Garden,” an adult space fantasy with #OwnVoices disability representation. Find her online at briannahopealbers.com and on social media @briehalbers.
The clock ticked accusingly on the wall. A lab technician had been inspecting my arm for the better part of 10 minutes, all in search of a vein that would put out a nominal amount of blood. Normally, I…
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Some people live for cold weather. They hate the heat, for some strange, inexplicable reason, and live for the day when they can pull out their chunky knit sweaters and thick, fuzzy socks. I am not one of those…
Second in a series. It was a dreary fall afternoon when I told my dad: “By the way, you should know I’m depressed.” I’d been feeling down for a couple of days, to the point where I was starting…
First in a series. “What was your support system like growing up?” I was on the phone with a researcher from Augustana University in South Dakota. We were discussing my transition from pediatric to adult care as someone with…
Growing up, my pediatrician was more than a doctor; she was part of the family. She supported me through all of life’s transitions, from puberty and menstruation to my transition to adult care when I turned 20. She even…
I’d just survived a car accident in Phoenix while road tripping with my parents from our home in Minnesota to the 2022 Cure SMA conference in Anaheim, California. (Long story short, my dad ran over a particularly…
In another world, I am my mother’s daughter, waking with the sunrise and heading to bed no later than 9 p.m. But in reality, I take after my father, who sees early risers as the enemy to end all…
Note: This column describes the author’s own experiences with Evrysdi (risdiplam). Not everyone will have the same response to treatment. Consult your doctor before starting or stopping a therapy. On our way home from the annual Cure…
I didn’t even know about the “Barbie” movie until I saw people talking about it on social media. I watched the trailer and thought, “That looks like a funky little movie.” But I wasn’t particularly enamored with…
The older I get, the more easily I cry. It never used to be that way. I didn’t cry at movies. I definitely didn’t cry when I was happy. Crying was terrible, and I hated every second of it.
It didn’t take long for my mom — who, in her own words, is not “retired” but “reliving” — to take advantage of her surplus of free time. Days after settling into the next stage of her life,…
As hopeful as I was when starting naturopathy, I didn’t actually expect anything to come of it. Desperate for relief and having tried everything else, I decided it was worth a shot. At the least, I could return…
