AIBU to wonder whether some disability content rewards staying visibly unwell?

It is.

I dont think they are deliberately faking it. I think they really believe themselves to be severely disabled, which is very worrying, and have become overly focussed on it.

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I’m genuinely really sorry that you were in constant pain when you were younger.

i think it says much for your strength of character that you built a life and have persisted despite that.

I also have spent much of my life in pain. My life is genuinely so much better if I have drugs that help with the pain I have - not painkillers any more although I did have a couple of years on tramadol immediately after my accident.

people who are experiencing pain in general do much better and are more able to build their own lives if that pain can be treated. That doesn’t mean just handing them strong painkillers but it does mean accepting that they are in pain and working with them on ways to help them reduce it, whether that’s drugs to calm the nervous system down (I’m on these) or things like meditation or physio.

I’ve found both physio and meditation and also bluntly distraction (so many tv series binge watched) helpful.

disability isn’t always comfortable to look at, and I’m grateful that some young disabled women are able to be visible and out there so that it’s not like when I was young and I had never heard of or seen anyone disabled at all.

I think it's good that we're becoming more open as a society and accepting that people need not 'put on a brave face' or hide the pain of their illnesses/conditions. It's one positive to come out of social media that people need not feel alone in their experiences. If these videos help even one person, that can only be a good thing.

If only there wasn't a small group of people blatantly faking/performing symptoms.
FND is a nebulous diagnosis that can encapsulate serious mental illness

A minority of EDS is genetic & identified with a genetic test.

The wider range of people getting diagnosed with it now have hypermobile EDS. Theres no clinical test proving it.

There are a lot of these conditions now, with no clinical test or a very unreliable one... hypermpbile eds, fnd, fibro, pots.

ND people have been sucked into the trans and the physical disability arena. Many of them fall victim to these things. There are healthier ways of dealing with difficulties than nurturing yourself into the inability to face up to life's challenges.

This isn't just about disability though. It's regarding the adoption of and promotion of disability as a life role. People aren't knocking genuinely disabled people, it's more concerned with the influencer types who play up their problems for whatever reason. I'm sorry, but it is a thing. I was just talking to ds about this last week because I see them online as well. The ND community have their fair share too.

i find it really depressing how much some people enjoy punching down on seriously ill and/or disabled people. The othering is off the scale.

Do they not understand that at any point any one of us could become disabled. And that if we are given a long enough lifespan, probably all of us will do?

When I was in nurse training we learned about the adoption of the sick role and how it can often hold people's rehabilitation back.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2026/09/05/disability-became-cool/

I also have eds and am waiting for GI surgery because of how it affects my stomach etc. My ds2 is badly affected as well.

I didn't say eds was psychosomatic. I said that these young women often have things like eds as well as FND 🙄 read my words.

It’s interesting to hear that my EDS is psychosomatic rather than a ‘rare inherited condition’ according to the NHS
https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/ehlers-danlos-syndromes/
I’ve spent over 25 years trying to get medical professionals to connect up all my serious health issues and numerous tests, consultant appointments etc
Although there is no cure and it’s about symptom management - I was starting to feel listened to until some of the wildly ignorant posters on here

FND is the new term for psychosomatic disorders. There are no physical causes for them, they're caused by the mind. They do cause real symptoms.

I've noticed the trend for young women with wheelchairs etc. They also have things like pots/eds/hypermobility/dysautonomia and neurodivergence. I actually have all these problems, but I've always just had to get on with it. These simply weren't recognised back in the day. I thought it was normal to constantly feel like shit, fall over, have a racing heart and be in constant pain. It wasn't very good, but I wouldn't have regarded them as a disability. I always worked, raised a family and just got on with it. I now take beta blockers for my tachycardia and orthotics for the physical aspects. Paracetamol for pain. I'm a tough person and glad to be so. I've never had any help.

Physical difficulties are a challenge, but it's worth fighting through and not adopting a sick role model of life.

I would imagine they post a lot about their disabilities on social media to raise awareness but then off camera they are just living their lives.

I have a disability and 2 of my sons are ambulatory wheelchair users. I'd much rather not have my disability and my sons feel the same.

I left a disability support group where the prevailing culture was about acquiring diagnoses. We all had a condition or two in common, but were being taught inadvertently how to claim other conditions. As in, if you get really tired as well then you’ve probably got CFS. It was like symptom bingo. And I could feel myself falling into it.

I was a bit taken aback at the woman who made content about the inadequate provision at a train station. She had a mobility scooter that didn’t fit their wheelchair system, and had staff wringing their hands about how to resolve it. She then announced that today wasn’t a particularly bad day so she’d walk up the stairs. Her feed also showed her at gymnastics, roller skating, and other very physical activities. It was hard to understand her condition.

Another day, another thread criticising people with disabilities.

I am so sick of the ableism on this type of threads.

Don't people have better things to do that constantly obsess about other people's health issues?

I think it's good that they film the content to raise public awareness of disability. It teaches able bodied people without a chronic illness the sort of challenges and struggles they have to put up with. And if it helps them gain a few followers and gives them some much needed confidence and support, why not?

Happy to have coffee with you anytime you like.

I’m not young (I’m49) and I have this diagnosis after a major accident.

yes, it is a diagnosis of exclusion inasmuch as the symptoms can’t be caused by another neurological disorder (ms, etc) but a lot of people who have physical damage caused by accidents or similar have FND diagnoses.

edited to add I’m not autistic I’ve been assessed by a consultant psychiatrist and she should know.

Gosh I can't imagine why it produces angry reactions. I'll have to rack my brain reallllllly hard to figure out why that would happen.

Oh. Congrats. This is a new angle. Just when I thought we'd run out of ways to push the disability frauds agenda.

I don’t know anything about the content, but I’m quite skeptical of FND generally. I’ve read some of the research and have met a few young people who have been given that diagnosis. All 3 were autistic and/or had extremely traumatic backgrounds. It’s basically a group of symptoms that could be explained by something else.

Oh yay, the 20th ignorant disability bashing thread to pop up this weekend