"People with invisible disabilities, such as chronic pain or some sleep disorder, are often accused of faking or imagining their disabilities. These symptoms can occur due to chronic illness, chronic pain, injury, birth disorders, etc., and are not always obvious to the onlooker.
Invisible Disabilities are certain kinds of disabilities that are not immediately apparent to others. It is estimated that 10% of people in the U.S. have a medical condition that could be considered a type of invisible disability.
Nearly one in two people in the U.S. has a chronic medical condition of one kind or another. Still, most people are not considered disabled, as their medical conditions do not impair their normal activities. These people do not use an assistive device, and most look and act perfectly healthy.
Hundreds of conditions, illnesses, and injuries can result in a hidden disability - anemia, brain injuries and strokes, allergies, epilepsy, heart diseases, lung conditions, mental illnesses, and chronic pain are just a few examples. Yet, although we are all aware of these individual conditions, there is much to be learned about the shared needs and experiences of the hidden disability community as the unique group it is."
-
Taken from the Invisible Disabilities: List and General Information by Disabled World (DW), 29/01/2026
-
Link to Disabled World’s (DW) collection of articles, research papers, and documents focused on various aspects of invisible disabilities
Friendly reminder to please use
spoiler tags and content warnings [cw]
for sensitive content that falls under Hexbear’s Code of Conduct. You can find the spoiler tag here:
Alt Text of image
Alt text of image: a screenshot of a comment box and its editing options, with a dark theme, grey and dark grey background with white text. A skinny white arrow points to the “spoiler” option, which is an exclamation point inside of a diamond, and the 13th or second-from-the-last icon in the middle of the photo and at the top of the light grey comment box that reads “Type here to comment…” in white italic font
After clicking it, substitute the second “spoiler” with your content warning and the three underscores ( ___ ) with your sensitive content.
As always, we ask that in order to participate in the weekly megathread, one self-identifies as some form of disabled, which is broadly defined in the community sidebar:
“Disability” is an umbrella term which encompasses physical disabilities, emotional/psychiatric disabilities, neurodivergence, intellectual/developmental disabilities, sensory disabilities, invisible disabilities, and more. You do not have to have an official diagnosis to consider yourself disabled.
Mask up, love one another, and stay alive for one more week.
Getting diagnoses for invisible illnesses feels so impossible.
Accessing medication is such a nightmare. I have to get all my stuff shipped from India, and I’m not nearly savvy enough to find or coordinate with Chinese suppliers.
Doctors here are so painfully out of date They won’t prescribe any modern drugs.
What’s the issue? The doctors pretending your disease is made up? They wanna prescribe you cocaine for your blood ghosts?
They’ve managed to turn medication into a gambling racket that favors the ruling class
Inshallah there emerges a Temu for generics.
Xi Jinping I am begging you.
Also people complain abut ai posters for small businesses. But i’m surrounded by information posters made by ai. Wash your alternatively 4, 5 and 6 lingered hands before seeing patients! Patient violence by weird ghibli-pixar hybrids who are sort of melting into the bed is unacceptable! Respect your fellow piss filtered workers! Here’s how evaluate a fracture of an anatomically impossible leg! (LENGTH, AXIS, ROTATION. 3 DATA POINTS. WHY THE AI?!?)
That feels worse. Like not to pull rank or anything, but your local restaurant having an ai generated cat on its menu just doesn’t seem dangerous, this kinda does.
That stuff is more geared towards normalisation however information is far more insidious because of misinformation about important things.
I want to eat ice cream but I am afraid to ask for it for some reason
More and more symptoms are breaking through my anti-psychotics, and I’m afraid I’m about to enter Psychosis Era Part II. Seeing how I didn’t do very well with Part I, I’m really nervous.
Should definitely speak to whomever prescribes your meds as soon as possible. Perhaps a dosage adjustment will be able to assist in what’s occurring?
I have been talking to them. I’ve tried pretty much every drug under the sun, and this eventually happened every time. I’m at the highest dose of what I’m currently on. Last time she just adjusted my anxiety med dose to try and help reduce anxiety caused by the other symptoms.
I got my sleep apnea test the other day and it turns out I am breathing just fine when I’m asleep. While this doesn’t answer why my blood pressure has increased since last year, it is certainly good to know that I am, in fact, sleeping and breathing fine.
That’s good news!! At least you can scratch that off the potentials list
Whew. Machines can be a hassle. I’m happy you can stay sleeping without one.
Absolutely! And thank you
Glad that turned out OK. Hope you get your blood pressure issues solved.
Thank you love, I hope so too
I was violently ill this morning with the most excruciating stomach pains and nausea. It was so awful I seriously considered calling an ambulance, I thought I might be dying. Eventually it mostly wore off and I started thinking about what might have caused it. The only thing I had done differently was eat a small amount of melon. Fruit is one of the many food intolerances I’ve developed due to my cancer treatment, and it’s the greatest loss, food-wise. I crave fruit so much and being surrounded by all this lovely summer fruit, I couldn’t resist any more and caved in. This life just sucks! Why did I have to become intolerant to all the most healthy and delicious things? Can no longer eat most veg, eggs, beans, nuts, and can only eat tiny amounts of grains. Saw the NHS dietician about it a few weeks ago and she said nothing can be done about these intolerances. She said she can’t even write me a healthy diet plan as the number of foods i can tolerate is so low. I can’t even tolerate supplements any more, so I’ve just been sent home with no help to slowly die of malnutrition. Vitamin deficiencies are already causing me to lose the feeling and movement in my toes, and have constant pins and needles and tingling and the doctors are just like “Oh well.”
Hope the discomfort passes soon
Thank you.
There are literally so many tests they could run to figure out foods you can actually eat and that would help you (it’s a grueling process that’ll take a lot of time and trial and error), they just flat out refuse to try. Can’t eat food normally? That’s a you-problem. I sympathize with that struggle and I’m sorry the melon made you feel so sick :(
Do you know what these tests are? Maybe if I know what they are I could push for them.
Unfortunately, no, I’m sorry. All I know is that these tests vary depending on what type of intolerance is being tested for, so if you can recognize any patterns in what you can’t eat, you might be able to ask a doctor about these patterns. As an example, having issues with dairy products can be an indicator for lactose intolerance, but it can also be an allergy to another part of dairy, like the proteins. It’s not very clear cut, but if there are patterns, those might help you with finding the right tests. You could also look for the symptoms you have when you eat something you have issues with. It boils down to a lot of research on your own, something that a doctor/professional should help you with.
As well as food intolerances I have developed actual allergic reactions lately to many medications, especially all antibiotics and opioids, as well as a prescribed bladder med. After much pleading a few months ago the doctor finally said she would refer me to an allergy specialist but I have heard nothing about that. It’s like my body can tolerate less and less over time, it’s reacting to almost everything. I already can’t use skin products apart from ones prescribed by the doctor like a soap substitute instead of actual soap, and a prescribed cream instead of normal moisturiser, and only hypoallergenic sanitary towels otherwise I break out in rashes, contact dermatitis and eczema. And on top of all this and the food intolerances, almost everything, especially smells, cause migraines, which is the most miserable thing of all, because you just can’t avoid the smells that other people cause, like perfume. I was told to keep diaries of all this which I did but then the doctor barely even looked at it. It’s just hopeless.
I know sweetie. I’m sorry
That sounds like Mast Cell Activation Syndrome. Most likely caused by the cancer or cancer treatment. If you aren’t dangerously underweight from the cancer and food intolerances, I highly reccomend Mounjaro, which is originally a weight-loss drug, but it has also proven to be a powerful anti-inflammatory at low doses, and is non-immunocomprimising.
I feel bad bringing it up because it seems out of reach unless you have a smart doctor or money to spare. I was able to ration $200 of the stuff over 6 months, but like, that’s not ideal, of course.
Every day it feels like the system itself is actively trying to kill you. It makes me so mad I could spit fire. Stay strong. Much love.
Thanks for the suggestion but doesn’t mountjaro have a ton of side effects? I’m trying to cut down on the number of meds I take as the side effects are just too awful. Anyway I couldn’t pay for it and to try and get it on prescription I’d have to spend years trying to convince GP to refer me to someone then be on the waiting list for a few more years. Hopefully I’ll be dead by then anyway. I’ve only just managed to get a referral to a urologist this Feb after begging the doctor for help with my bladder issues for over a decade.
Thanks for posting here so often btw. It’s very validating seeing someone else deal with the debauchery of European medical institutions.
The side effects are all GI related. Mostly nausea. The dose for rheumatic people and MCAS is really small though, so I doubt you’d have any. The newest version called retatrutide has way less symptoms too.
Honestly don’t bother with coordinating it with doctors. Just get a small amount from a chinese company if you ever have 50 quid left over one day (which is probably too big an ask knowing how abysmal UK welfare is). UK customs are more lenient than EU customs.
I chipped three teeth from stimming in the last 6 months. Got the news the other day at the dentist.
Trying to help a kid learn their times table but they just paste stuff into chatgpt.
Bane of modern existence, I am glad my teacher is old fashioned she taught me how to do problems without calculator even though you’re allowed one in uni here and I am so glad she did because even calculator is wrong sometimes and even if I don’t know how to solve the entire problem by hand I can verify the results. Needless to say she despises AI.
I’m not opposed to children or anyone else fibbing or using tools. But this is the times table, it is literally quicker to do 5 times 7 in your head than to ask chatgpt to get it wrong. (Assuming of course you are capable)
I will say that they did independently develop rudimentary algebra trying to trick me. Because i decided to ask them the questions using facts like “How many stuffed toys you have” times “How many drawings you made yesterday” she would set up the prompt and then end the prompt with like “And my number of stuffed animals is X and I drew Y things”
Yea I understand what you mean but sometimes you need to do certain things the old way. Learning on screens has been proven to be less effective than learning from books for example, I wouldn’t want a kid to use smartphones or calculators for a while, I would let them do things slowly but it would have to be by hand. I am very much a luddite in this sense that I wouldn’t want kids to be using a computer until like age 7 or something and not using internet until similar age. I think something is taken away when devices are introduced so early.
I agree! One small addendum: I think 7 is too early for touch screen devices. Getting acquainted with a regular computer that doesn’t have internet access is actually an interesting way of learning to use the device slowly, especially when you don’t have many programs on it. It gives you a rough understanding on how the tech works, and then you can get slowly introduced to more modern / complex / haptic devices like smartphones or tablets later on in life. I may be talking out of my ass here because I had a similar experience, but I still feel like my usage of smartphones is more on the responsible side because I only got it after graduating high school. That is not to say I am immune to its addictiveness
Yes I agree, I am also just going off my personal experience and what I have seen in the world around me instead of any strict empirical research. That’s why I like to think of internet access as not a requirement for life but an option available whenever neccesary, having access to do much of humanity knowledge is nice but you don’t want to live in it 24/7.
Another day where I wish I could say something, there’s no point, they won’t help, talking only puts me in more danger.
Ive been informed by a child that they no longer say skibidi, skibidi is for olds now. We ruined it.
A child exempted me from their “All adults are evil” rule.
Because “[i am] not a real adult, [I’m] just cringe”.
Kids man, brutal.
I don’t think you’re cringe, I think you’re the best sandwichmaker! And that makes you exempt from “real adults”
I take being called cringe rather than evil as a pure upgrade. Obviously if I had given the child my lunch sandwich they would have bumped me up from cringe to “Almost cool”
I think you’re already cool for taking this with a lot of humor
Post-Musk SSI reevaluations are a nightmare.
I haven’t been around the past week as I’ve been in hospital with a severe ear infection that I couldn’t fight off due to being allergic to virtually every antibiotic now. It was a big, horrible thing and I just got home this afternoon. Anyway, hope you’re all doing OK.
Doctor agreed I can stop therapy, and gave me resources to find something else that’s free. And I noticed they have a program for ppl with mild to moderate depression but do not have anything for ppl with severe depression?
Tbh that’s fine I guess I’d rather play Minecraft for an extra hour than deal with more free mental health services anyway
they don’t have a treatment for us because they can’t prescribe a community that gives a shit about you or a society that doesn’t want us to die to fill the pockets of some leech.
Even in a society where a leech’s pocket aren’t being filled by our death, we just aren’t considered worth saving. There scientists trying to make vaccines for pregnant folks that would ‘reduce chances of autism and depression in fetus’ like they would rather spend tons of money to mess with two parts of life we barely understand (birth and brain) in a hubris rivalled by Dr. Frankenstein instead of just letting us live, like seriously if you don’t want to accomodate is, at least let us live on our own terms? Maybe support assisted suicide as an option?
support assisted suicide as an option?
As someone who has wanted assisted suicide for many years, I truly don’t understand why this isn’t an option in every capitalist country for disabled people who aren’t terminal. IME, they do everything they can to avoid supporting us - I would have starved or committed suicide if it wasn’t for mutual aid, they literally left me without a source of income for like a year and a half. They complain non-stop about how much I cost the NHS and have tried to change my prescriptions to cheaper ones that don’t work just to save money. I can’t get the help I need like a carer from the council because too many people need this assistance so they’re only giving it to people who are bedridden or have special needs. I can’t even wear a bra any more because my mobility is too bad to get one on and they won’t provide someone to help me dress. I can only wear baggy or stetch clothes, without buttons or zips and I can hardly get those clothes on without help anyway. The food bank only lets you have 9 days worth of food every 6 months. I mean, why are they forcing me to stay alive when they clearly don’t give a shit about my welfare? It’s just infuriating. I can only assume that they want to think well of themselves, and if they outright say “Yes let’s put the disabled down,” they’d have to admit they are Nazis. Easier to claim there is so much help out there and if we aren’t accessing it, it’s our own fault. And this mentality is so prevalent that it is even in evidence here on mutual aid often, with all the unsolicited advice people receive, with information about how to access help without needing to use mutual aid. Except the advice they give is usually wrong, not applicable to the situation or inaccessible to the person asking for help.
There are people who are genuine comrades but their rhetoric on disabled people is one step removed from Nazism. Listen to any doctor or medical who is a communist or any communist period, their rhetoric when boiled down to basics is “You will our way and you will like it because we don’t want to admit our thinking about you is influenced from people we hate” if they say “yea you can die” then it’ll be clear they don’t want to help anyone, they can’t just give help and a dignified death to those of us who want it.
Some of our comrades’ comments on the disabled and those asking for help have been truly disappointing.
Truly. I don’t know if ai can say this here or not but I have contemplated suicide nearly everyday since last 3 months, like man, if I won’t have a place anywhere at all then what’s the purpose then? At least ending it all would relieve the food supply of providing for one person.
What advice ro you have for me?
I’m watching around 50 lychee seeds sprout and grow. Thanks to my bf some of them are potted. Today we just learned that sprouting lychee from seed is often going to result in sour fruit. And that the best way to get trees that bear sweet lychees is to clone a tree that already produces sweet fruit. To me, it kinda sounds like the way apples and the seed sprouts work.
Idk what we’re gonna do with all these plants. We have no land. Just a balcony. We hope at least one of them will bear sweet fruit.
50 is a lot, maybe you could connect with some fellow plant lovers who would have the space and means to take some off your hands?
Can you get an allotment?
I have none in walking distance and I don’t want to produce more fumes than the trees absorb via car. I think the closest to having them planted as I can get is giving them away as ornamental plants, with the slightest chance of them producing sweet fruit in 4+ years.
