Girls Using Walking Sticks

[Arran2024]

I saw a post about this on X this morning. Apparently it is a trend.

Anyway, I went into town this afternoon and sure enough, I saw a number of young women with walking sticks. None of them looked like they were leaning hard on their stick, just kind of walking along like it was a big umbrella.

Is anyone else seeing this?

This has been picked up by the media today

https://www.facebook.com/share/1b48uVjcXB/?mibextid=wwXIfr

I have definitely noticed it increasing in the last year especially on TikTok. I fear this might be a trend.

This link has the video Kathleen Stock references:
https://www.yahoo.com/lifestyle/articles/wheelchair-user-goes-viral-climbing-223500815.html

The young woman in the video also says that she has autism and Tourette's

This article mentions the same tiktoker I mentioned upthread. I got absolutely slated and have only realised now that my post which actually detailed what she did has been deleted, no idea why, it was factual, as is my belief that she is far more able than she makes out. Her TikTok is an absolute eye opener. I have no idea what’s going on but it seems to be some sort of trend for some people.

I don't think we should be speculating about a particular individual's disabilities. I posted the link above which contains the video as it is mentioned in the Stock article.

My grandad, when he was in his late 90s, could very slowly climb stairs and walk a short distance but amazingly, for longer journeys (more than 50m), he needed a wheelchair.

People lucky enough not to have a disability themselves and ignorant enough to not know anyone with a disability should keep their unhelpful comments to themselves, including and especially such renowned medical experts on disability with a huge platform as, checks notes, philosophers and authors.

I think it’s perfectly fine to speculate actually. If someone regularly posts vastly contradictory information should we never question it? I mean I haven’t done anything other than mention it in the context of the thread, which I think is entirely reasonable. It’s the entire personality of many of these TikTok creators: it’s ok for people to wonder.

I just don't think it's safe to speculate about individual cases. I am not a doctor and don't know the individual's medical history.

I do think though that one can legitimately remark on the massive increase in numbers which may suggest that their might be some sort of psychosomatic origin of a social contagion, in the same way that there has been with gender dysphoria and more recently with Tourette's

I agree. Speculating whether "they're more able than they make out" is 🙄
Surely that just completely misses the fact that some people who are disabled and use wheelchairs/sticks or whatever can have days where they're better than others? Doesn't mean they're bound to them all the time otherwise they must be putting it on which is what's being insinuated!
Horrible thread all round really.

Hugely disappointing article from Stock. People seriously don't know what ambulatory wheel chair user means.

People with disabilities do not need this crap.

If there are lots of young women walking around with walking sticks are we supposed to ignore it? Not ask any questions at all?

Noticing a sudden general trend shift in a particular population isn't a bad thing, surely? What if something is going badly wrong and it is being ignored?

Me neither! Although I prefer to use a crutch as it’s more comfortable, and no one bats an eyelid to someone my age using a crutch. When I used a normal stick, people were always asking why I had one. (MS)

It's not exactly great if you're seeing young people with walking sticks and you're (general you're) automatically using it to buy into conspiracy theories about social contagion and people who are trans.
Transphobia (for want of a better word) really does harm everyone, it seems.
Even those who are disabled now.

I feel for the tired workman. I also feel for people of any age with a genuine disability. But from what I’ve seen, imaginary illnesses are part of a whole set of victim-status conditions, including gender dysphoria, claimed by certain people, as part of a current fad.

No, I certainly wouldn't want to buy into conspiracy theories.

But I equally wouldn't want to ignore an issue just because of being afraid to raise it in case I was called names for doing so.

This works both ways.

I had a a similar ISH experience as an ambulatory wheelchair user and I don't doubt I faced judgement from the people who witnessed it

I was on a weekend away with my son and a lift wasn't working so I got out of the chair and he had to carry it up the steps (thankfully it's very light weight - carbon fibre) and I walked up the steps. I could see people staring and judging.

I have no pain and no visible issues with my gait

What they don't see though is that this effort meant my double vision became so bad I then got an ocular migraine and was projectile vomiting in the hotel room..and they dont see that we had to spend the rest of the day with me just lying in bed because I could lift my head up.

Wheelchairs are bloody expensive and a pain in the arse. But the alternative for me is to live a desperately limited life.

Indeed.

And people dont seem to understand or care than many fluctuating conditions hit women far more than men

Also I know a few young men with my condition and they all refuse to use wheelchairs even though that means either being housebound or risking constant serious /dangerous flares. There's a far bigger issue of people not feeling able to embrace supports . The people who stay home because of fear of judgement at being an ambulatory wheelchair user are invisible. I spent so many years housebound for big chunks of time before investing in a wheelchair. No one was wringing their hands about that

Also, I have on several occasions got out of my wheelchair and gone ice skating and then got back in my wheelchair afterwards

Not because I want to identify as ill. Not because I think it's fashionable. Not because I want pity. Quite the opposite. Because I just want a few minutes doing an activity that made me feel like old me... The person I was before I get ill. I love ice skating. DH and the children know I love it. So a couple of times a year we go. I rest beforehand. Then use the wheelchair to get to the rink. Then skate, feeling the joy of an old hobby, until symptoms begin to appear (and sometimes pushing through them because its just so lovely to skate again). Then get back in my chair to get back to the car and once we are home I know I will have to go to bed but it will all have been worth it for just that little bit of time on the ice

So Ms Stock can come and spend a week in my life if she likes. Spend a week knowing that it you talk too much or walk too much you can end up on a ventilator in ICU. Then think again about whether to get sniffy and judgy about someone getting up out of their chair to walk or even skate.

That particular wheelchair user does gymnastics in her spare time and doesn't seem to be hindered by any disability then. Im sorry but its just ridiculous. If she could walk up the stairs then she should have done that rather than inconvenience several staff members for over half an hour. How entitled. Also the number of other ailments she also has such as the tourettes ( a verified social contagion in recent years) etc is extremely unlikely. Im guessing she also happens to have the "current thing", which is POTS or maybe long covid. I mean, what are the odds?

I agree that inconveniencing the staff wasn't ok, I would never do that, even if it took a huge toll on me.

But the mere fact someone can get out of their wheelchair and (say) skate doesn't mean they don't need it

I don’t know about the trend, but I had to have a big knee brace and crutches for a while and honestly it was rather lovely to go out and be treated so kindly! People (especially men in fact) stopping to hold doors for me, and cars slowing so I could cross the road…

…maybe these young ladies are just hankering after some old-fashioned gallantry and the stick helps with that?

But how can people label others as having imaginary disabilities? MEcfs is real. Eds is real. Fibromyalgia is real. POTS is real. These conditions often overlap.

They affect more women than men too and we've just been through a pandemic which has triggered a surge in cases.

If some young people are pretending to have these chronic illnesses then this is an issue for their parents to unravel perhaps. But nobody should assume people are lying. Any suggestion people are lying is really worrying. The consequences of such judgement are that disabled people will fear using mobility aids or asking for help that they need to leave the house.

I would have thought that KS might have more empathy having been the subject of her own witch hunt.

A teenage girl I know recently hurt her knee playing sport. When she said it wasn’t better after the usual rest and careful management, her parents took her to have it looked at. There didn’t seem to be anything seriously wrong and she was advised to continue with treating it carefully until it did get better.
Soon afterwards she appeared with crutches - nobody knew where she got them from - and insisted on using them all the time “for her knee”. They didn’t seem to be properly adjusted for her height, but she personalised them and added extra padding for comfort. They provided lots of distraction, fuss and bother for everyone. I was amused because after a recent knee replacement I was less dependent on crutches than she was (and I was using mine properly - she had obviously never been taught, e.g. how to go up and down stairs).
A few weeks later they went on holiday and magically she didn’t need to take the crutches with her. It’s still a mystery where she got them from.

ETA I did mention to her parents that it was a bit of a fad among teenage girls at present.

I don't think it's safe to accuse a particular individual of being a victim of social contagion, but I think there are legitimate questions to be raised by the apparent exponential growth in certain conditions.

In the same way, gender dysphoria used to be an incredibly rare condition but is now widespread in schools and particularly amongst young adults, or the way Tourette's rocketed amongst teenagers during COVID which appears to have been fueled by TIkTok videos. It is also noteworthy that a number of these young women are affected by multiple issues where a social contagion is suspected which might suggest that they are particularly susceptible to these kind of trends/psychosomatic issues.

If you're on TikTok it can be quite hard to escape this stuff. I like nail polish and on almost any video about preventing chipping the comments seem to fill up with young women and teenage girls saying that nail polish chipping is a sign that you really have hEDS despite there being no studies to back this up and it not being a symptom recognised by doctors generally. There are often numerous replies saying "Oh my gosh! I must have hEDS". HEDS is also the type of EDS which cannot be tested for - other varieties of EDS can be diagnosed by blood tests on my understanding.

I have spent my entire adult life in and around universities (in several countries and three continents), I also have children currently at university, and up until 3-4 years I could have counted the number of students in wheelchairs or with walking sticks on the fingers of my hands. Whereas during the last few years you can see groups of girls with sticks on campus, never boys. Even if women are overrepresented in some of the conditions requiring walking aids, you'd expect at least some male students as well. Where have they all been until now? Whatever caused this sudden increase, be it physical or psychological or social, it's worth trying to find out what is going on.

Hypermobole EDS is tested via the Beignton (?) scale and is easily observable.

I can understand the concern over tik tok videos trying to make conditions seem desirable but I think singling out individuals is dangerous. Whether or not this young woman in the video is genuinely ill, she's going to be in for such a lot of flack now. I suppose one could argue she's invited that sort of attention if she's a sort of influencer but I think it's very concerning for her and for people with disabilities in general.