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?

Well, yes, we're discussing a trend that's been observed. Whether it's just due to people with disabilities being more comfortable using a stick as it's more acceptable (I think everyone will agree this is a good thing), or, whether it's due to girls who would have been self-harming or bulimic a few decades ago doing this instead (I would think everyone would agree this is bad for the girls and bad for actual disabled people taking their spaces). This is the discussion. It's the first I heard of it. Actually, no, "transabling" is in the third Strike novel come to think of it!

I am also physically disabled so I hear you but you know nothing about me I just commented that a perfectly healthy teenager has started to use a stick this isn't a reflection on you, the op noticing something that seems to have escalated isn't a reflection on you. The question is if these girls are self identifying as disabled surely that is more harmful to disabled people than not ? I am fully aware of hidden disability just fyi.

And fwiw I was genuinely asking of you were ok your post came over as if you were distressed, use your stick if you need it because my opinion doesn't actually matter.

I read a post on a local autism forum from a woman whose child had started at a local college and declared they were non binary. Then started walking with a stick. Then told her they needed a wheelchair. There was nothing wrong with them, I'm guessing they were playing with identities. Which is shit. Shame she saw nothing wrong with non binary part and the progression from that to self identifying as disabled.

An autistic relative of mine is now trans, and suddenly needs to use sticks, a walker, a wheelchair. All pink or purple of course, to show he's totes a girl. 🙄

I'm autistic myself, as are two of my kids. I don't need the world to know that when we go out. Only in specific circumstances would I even mention it. It is not our whole identity, and we are all properly diagnosed.

I’m not judging or ridiculing anyone. I’m just noticing a very recent social phenomenon that appears to be linked somehow with trans and identity. I actually think these trends are quite harmful to young people so it is important for society to take an interest. Also I’m starting to think that any subject that results in the sort of name calling we can see on this thread should be talked about more not less. If there is a massive uptick in young women needing to use mobility aids we really need to understand why? Name calling doesn’t work anymore. We’ve all been there and done that already.

I'm far more upset by people who think they can judge who is disabled or not by looking at them than I am by an alleged fad for people to use a stick when they don't need to.

The issue here is simple and I will explain why some of the responses on this thread are ableist:

There are many people assuming that there are fake disabled people and actual disabled people. Are we all meant to believe there are hordes of people out there pretending to be disabled? Im going to say that this is a very very, very slim minority. This fake disabled trope is so dangerous and based in fear and hatred.

eg You dont walk into a hospital and try to figure out who the fake doctors are - although there are people who have falsified qualifications etc.

If someone feels they need to use a stick then why does it matter? It takes nothing away from long term disabled people. If a teenager who has self diagnosed pots uses a stick, the disability police aren't going to come round and take my stick away from me.

I could go on but honestly why bother? People are stuck in their (ableist) ways and won't bother to read.

I've seen this on X.
It's really common for teenagers, male or female to faint. It can run in families as it does in mine. Stand up, go dizzy, black out. I used to do it all the time, both my DSs did. You grow out of it eventually.
It's not POTS but POTS sounds much more glamorous. At least they're not starving or deciding to be trans.

Might I suggest you are noticing this because while disabled teens used to not be very visible, now we have influencers who are disabled. People don't feel like they should have to fade into the background or avoid certain situations.

And come on, disabled people are always likely to be a bit alternative. We've suffered and been rejected by the popular kids. The pretty blonde disabled women you see on tv are on tv because they've been deemed "acceptable disabled" by the mainstream. Just like non-disabled women on tv are usually far more attractive than Jan next door.

I see you don't think self diagnosis is harmful or an infringement on disabled people and their rights Baggingarea or even your comments are also abliest so i will just leave it here and not reply to you anymore.

Which part was ableist?

I personally dont think people should self diagnose because it means they might diagnose incorrectly. But i dont see how it harms the disabled community - I get f a from the state anyway, I'm not missing out on anything! That isn't controversial.

And you don't have to reply but seems a bit silly starting to talk about something on a public forum then shutting it down when someone disagrees with you.

eg You dont walk into a hospital and try to figure out who the fake doctors are - although there are people who have falsified qualifications etc.

I think this is probably a bad comparison. There are layers and layers of protocols and regulations that ensure that fake doctors are not employed in hospitals. Obviously this does fail on occasion but the safeguards are there for a reason and for the most part work effectively.

Are they actually saying they’re self diagnosing? Or are they saying they have POTS and people are assuming they’re self diagnosing?

Yes but what I'm saying is, it still happens. Not the best comparison maybe but also not the central point of what i was trying to relate there.

I presume the op had read this piece
https://dailysceptic.org/2025/07/07/introducing-pots-the-next-social-contagion-to-grip-miserable-teenage-girls/

I personally find self diagnosis problematic - for all kinds of reasons (for example, getting it wrong and missing the opportunity to have something else picked up and properly treated, as well as providing fuel for the kinds of attitudes displayed on this thread).

I also think that self diagnosis may well be the start of a slippery slope into a kind of self ID / transabled sort of scenario. As someone with a physical disability that I would really rather not live with I find the idea of "identifying" as disabled very offensive. I do not "identify" as disabled. It is a material fact about my body, and one that I wish, wish, wish I could "identify" out of.

But, having said all of that, I still find comments on this thread offensive. It is perfectly possible to have a conversation about social contagion, about the idea that that there may be some sort of social capital associated with a visual display of disability,* about the ways in which these phenomena intersect without policing the use of mobility aids by others. It is miserable to need to use a mobility aid in public, people are often unpleasant and sometimes violent to those who are disabled (I have been assaulted in the past, by someone who took issue with a device I was using to get around), and someone using a walking stick who doesn't need it doesn't affect me one iota. (This is, for example, in contrast with the use of women's changing facilities by people of the male sex, where the presence of one male potentially affects all the women there.)

*I find the assumption that there is some sort of social capital fascinating. My experience is the opposite!

I just think we are at risk of walking out of one batshit social contagion into another. As soon as people start attempting to shut down the conversation you know there is potentially a problem. Personally I don’t even think this is about faking disability or even about disability at all. It’s different to that. It’s more about identity.

Same. Using a stick is annoying and a faff and I hate drawing attention to myself.

People are always going to explore with identity. When i was a teen I was a "skater". Can i skateboard? No and certainly not now lol.

I just dont think you can try control how people identify and by doing so nobody wins. And as Ive said so before, this perhaps is more visible because of social media.

I was mangled in a RTA many years ago. There is a small section of these people who glamourise and even want to experience my type of disability.

That pisses me right off.

I still reckon there's a trend for certain people to use walking sticks unnecessarily.

If that makes me ableist, then so be it.

No it isn't. "By proxy" means someone else is doing it on your behalf. (As in a proxy vote is when someone votes in your behalf - did you think that a proxy vote is just another word for a vote?!). 😂

The clinical world is moving away from these diagnosed anyway, we talk about factitious and fabricated illness.

This thread is full of disinformation being espoused as fact, so you're not the only one!

Agree.
Disabled people used to be hidden away, I can't get out much. I work from home
Now through social media we can find connection with each other and share our lives with the wider world.

Again, it's weird how this kind of sharing is seen as "brave" and "honest" if it's cancer but not if it is a less well known condition

What strikes me (since this is on the feminism board perhaps we'd like to look at some feminist perspectives rather than just mockery) is two things.

1. Self-diagnosis is being denigrated and mocked, and yet we know that women's health problems are not taken as seriously as men's and that there is bias in medicine. Perhaps for many young women self-diagnosis is the only part available to them?

1. If you believe in your own superpower to identify the real disabled people from the fake ones, then perhaps you could consider why some young women might make a disability (according to you). Some posters have mentioned attention seeking - what is attention seeking really? Attachment needing. What is calling all of these (again according to certain posters) young women to be serving attachment and connection? Why are they not about to get that through family and social relationships? Perhaps time would be better spent understanding and coming alongside, rather than this distinctly anti-feminist mess on this thread.

Yes, I meant to mention that when I was talking about self diagnosis above!

Women are far, far more likely to have their symptoms dismissed than men. So this seems likely to leave many to feel that it's their only option. (I think it's interesting that we are, as a group, sympathetic to women with symptoms related to something like endometriosis, which is often dismissed, and not sympathetic to those who have symptoms they consider caused by eg POTS.)

I'm very sorry if I offended anyone.

Both my adult daughters (they are in their 20s) get PIP. One gets high rate mobility and the other gets the standard rate.

One has hypermobility. The other has a learning disability and epilepsy.

Neither uses a stick. They dont need one but I guess they could use one as a way to highlight that they have additional needs.

But is that OK? That's really what I'm asking? It has nothing to do with judging if a random person is see is disabled - and I didn't do that yesterday. I saw more than a couple of young women with sticks and it did seem an unusual number in a small timeframe/area (I only visited M&S and got the bus home).

My daughters are adopted and there was a lot of fictitious illnesses in their birth family. One of my daughters would love a stick - she basically role plays her way through life (she has PDA) and she would love it. But I dont think she should.

I’m shocked at how PoTS is being referred to in this thread. Some sort of ‘fashionable’ ailment, fabricated or worse fabricated by proxy and all the other ill informed nonsense.
My son has PoTS, was in primary school when it was diagnosed and only by sheer luck if a knowledgable paediatrician recognising the symptoms quickly.
He does everything he can to be ‘normal’ but that takes huge effort from us all including his medical team.
My idiot of an ex egged on by his equally idiotic new partner tried the fabricated illness thing and failed dismally, because err you know, it’s a thing and he has it.
how i could fabricate the change in his heart rate on an ecg machine when i wasn’t even in the same room is impressive! there are many ways people adapt to chronic illness and some of them can look attention seeking or performative but in my experience that’s generally linked to their personality type than the illness.
singling out a largely misunderstood debilitating illness is unfair, harmful and perpetuates myths galore making the life of people like my child even harder. as his mum i have to advocate for him, support him, challenge him to try things when he finds them tough and generally fight for him to have the best quality of life he can and reach his full potential.