"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."
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Taken from the Invisible Disabilities: List and General Information by Disabled World (DW), 29/01/2026
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Link to Disabled World’s (DW) collection of articles, research papers, and documents focused on various aspects of invisible disabilities
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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.
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?
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.