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.
It’s 2014. I’m months-deep into a major depressive episode. Nothing is enjoyable, not even my all-time favorite video game. I feel listless in the worst of ways. Several of my friends are playing “Dragon Age: Inquisition” (DAI), the…
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The romantic in me wants to believe that dreams are portents, or windows to the psyche, or invaluable self-knowledge tools. But the therapist in me, who dabbled in clinical psychology for a time, is suspicious of anything resembling psychoanalysis.
My dad and I are night owls. We rarely leave the house before noon — and when we do, we complain the entire time, like a pair of sulky babies. My mom laughs at us, but it’s just…
Not everyone likes it. A while back, I was talking to a friend in Singapore who also has SMA. She mentioned that although she wanted to post something for SMA Awareness Month, she was struggling to balance her…
When it comes to storms, I’m a dog with high levels of anxiety. Don’t get me wrong, I love the rain. A gentle rainfall is the perfect backdrop to at least half of my favorite activities. But storms…
I was a bit of an Anglophile in high school. I was obsessed with anything produced by the BBC — “Doctor Who,” “Sherlock,” “Merlin,” even the 2006 retelling of “Robin Hood.” It didn’t help that my best friend…
I’m a productivity geek. I’m not content with simply doing things. I want to do them well. And I want to do as much as I possibly can in the time I have left. Productivity has served me well.
Many, many years ago, I gave a presentation on the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) of 1990. I was in middle school at the time, and was hopelessly devoted to the concept of “normalcy.” I wanted more than…
As someone who avoided the disability community for years, I am slowly learning that I am not alone — my struggles are shared by hundreds of thousands of people across the world. “The Pretty One: On Life, Pop…
I hoped that things would “get back to normal” — whatever that means — by mid-summer. Reader, I was disappointed. But I’m used to disappointment. After all, I spent the better part of two decades learning to embrace lockdown…
My family has a saying: “It’s always an adventure with us.” It originated with Katelyn, an honorary member of the Albers household and my first personal care assistant (PCA). “It’s always an adventure with you,” she once said.
One of my favorite writers, Leo Babauta, is known for his work on mindfulness and simplicity. His blog, “Zen Habits,” is one of few newsletters that I intentionally keep up with. My…
I am officially a baby influencer. I spent the morning tweaking my social media pages. I’ve been doing that a lot lately, ever since I graduated with a master’s degree and found myself with oodles of free time. But…
