Discover Top Posts Tagged with #gut issues

i just wanted to share this here for my friends with arfid/gut issues/other people who struggle to eat while grappling with food rules ❤︎

[image description - a post by user @chloeshayden on threads that reads: "Reminder for my ARFID/gut issue girlies that the only bad food is food that is not mentally or physically unsafe for you and that breakfast/dinner foods are fake. The only thing I can stomach today is Açai bowls and so that has been lunch and dinner ! Want to eat pasta for brekkie? Perfect !!!! A smoothie for dinner ? Great !!!! Your body won’t let you eat anything except gelato? Eat gelato !!!! ‘Fed is best’ doesn’t only apply to kids." end image description.]

#arfid #autism #actually autistic #food rules #diet culture #gut issues #ibs

Why am I nauseous ALL THE TIME

Nauseous if I eat

Nauseous if I don’t eat

Nauseous from normally safe food

Nauseous from different food

Nauseous from drinking water

Nauseous from dry mouth

Nauseous if stomach hurts

Stomach hurts if nauseous

Nauseous from meds

Nauseous without meds

#chronic illness #chronic pain #chronically ill #spoonie #neurodivergent #disability #fibromyalgia #chronic fatigue #disabled #fibro #nausea #gut issues #stomach issues #ibs posting #nightblogging #just let me sleep #acid reflux #hypermobility

The strangers things fandom and disabilities

[PT: The strangers things fandom and disabilities]

Intro

[PT: Intro]

So I've seen this thing in fandom spaces where most injuries/disabling experiences a character canonically lives through are mostly ignored or are only an issue temporarily. As in they need a time of recovery but then they are perfectly fine.

This also goes for the industry. Very much avoided at all costs, and most of the time when they do happen they also are temporary or they die soon after that.

But with this I want to focus on fandom, as it's also very common to have headcanons of the characters, and it's been much more common seeing autistic and adhd characters in fics. But any other kind of disability/neurodivergency is often sidelined. And with how popular lgbtqia+ headcanons (they are sadly more often than not only in the homosexuality part of the community, and aspec, trans, intersex, polyamorous,... Hdc are much less common. I don't want to ignore that.), the lack of disabled representation in fandom spaces is jarring.

There's also a complete lack of POC rep, but today I'll focus on disability. Which stranger things shows very clearly.

I also want to preface that this goes mostly with my experience with it, and that as I never could really fully watch S5 with how bad it was, any fics I've read are written continuing at most after s4. They may also be a bit jumbled up regarding where I'm talking about what, as it's a very broad topic and some parts will fit for context reasons.

Neurodivergencies/mental health/disorders

[PT: Neurodivergencies/mental health/disorders]

So the neurodivergency spectrum is very wide, and can and does include a lot of things. But pop psicology has made it seem like it's only/mostly adhd and autism.

This can really be shown with what divergencies are commonly portraid. I've seen Mike with adhd/autistic, autistic Will, autistic Robin, Steve with adhd/autistic,...

But I've seen very little variation from it. Just some examples that could work:

With all the characters I want to really make it clear. They would all, almost definitely, have PTSD or C-PTSD, and some issues with anxiety and/or depression.

Will had the whole possession thing, he could've had some brain injury, epilepsy, non-epileptic seizures, psychosis, etc.

Steve had a lot of head hits, that could end in concussions and be the origin of a migraine disorder or brain injury.

Mike's whole issues with Will, attachment as a whole, his anger issues, the whole suicide thing in S1, impulsivity, it could be seen/thought as BPD.

Robin's issues that are often headcanoned as autism could also be seen as OCD or anxiety.

Chrissy's whole ED plot is often ignored.

El/Jane should definitely have some developmental delays, and with her powers she should have some kind of issue addressed for her health other than nose bleeds and the occasional headache. She could end up getting a brain injury from it, get seizures, chronic migraines,... With the whole going into others heads it could lead to disassociating and even DID.

Hopper's issues with addiction regarding alcoholism.

These are just some examples I just came up with. And there are many more interpretations or possibilities for all these characters. But most of them are almost never explored. Or done very lightly in the background.

Physical disabilities

[PT: Physical disabilities]

Going into the physical disabilities, we should start with the obvious and then we go to the more overlooked ones:

DUSTIN [PT: Dustin:]

He has cleidocranial dysplasia (CCD), and it is never really address apart from talking about the bullying or that scene in s3. It's important to not only see someone's issues with disability being about the bullying itself and done. But that, especially in visible physical conditions, often leads to low self esteem, and to overcome that the character has to have a journey of accepting and being comfortable with their own condition and how that makes them look. It's not just fixed easily. And it's it's own journey of self discovery and love.

MAX [PT: Max]

At the end of s4 she gets in a coma. She has bled through her eyes. She has broken all of her limbs. At the very least, she would need temporarily a wheelchair and glasses. And that's being very generous.

When one is in a coma, their body loses muscle mass, that pluss the all limbs broken thing, she would in a realistic event —especially adding the whole possession thing that moved out of place so many parts of her body— end up quadriplegic or paralysed partially at least. As that extreme body disfigurement she had while possessed definitely had to fuck up some of her nerve connections and tendons. So she would probably be a wheelchair user. If not, at least she would probably end up needing knee braces/crutches/a cane/or other options to stabilize herself for long periods of time.

As for the eye bleeding she would get eye damage. With no other option. She would almost definitely end up blind/with partial blindness. She in a realistic world would probably need for independence a guide dog or a white cane.

ANYONE WHO GOT POSSESED [PT: Anyone who got possesed]

It would definitely lead to some kind of psychosis/schizospec/disassociating disorder of some kind.

And with that being said, the whole upside down entity inside your body? Specifically the ones that had that kind of slug inside of them? It would definitely have some lasting damage on their gut and intestines. It would weaken their immunologic system.

PEOPLE AT THE STARCOURT BATTLE [PT: People at the starcourt battle]

With that big ass explosion there's literally no way that no one ended up being Hard of hearing or with some hearing loss.

WILL [PT: Will]

Him specifically? With the possession stuff withe the cold with visions and the burning him to stop it, and almost hypothermia as it seemed in S1? He would very probably have a thermodysregulation disorder.

And these are just some ideas I've had just now. Not even thinking about it that much. There's much more possible options and possibilities. But they would not all end up abled bodied. They would all end up with lasting effects of the events. No one would be saved of having at least some scars and someone would most probably would have ended up with a very bad cut in the upside down with no treatment, ending up in amputation at one point probably.

Joining it with the fandom representation and the why

[PT: Joining it with the fandom representation and the why]

So in fandom these lasting effects/disabilities are often not done. And as we've seen in the past points it's not for a lack of opportunity. So why do most fics after s4 for example show Max with a full recovery? Why are disabilities not headcanoned a lot? Why are most demonized neurodivergencies/disorders not headcanoned for the most part?

Ableism.

That's it. The demonization and villanization of people with these conditions makes it so that people see others that have it and automatically think of them as bad/insane people. And when one does fanfiction, most tend to project themselves into it, and people don't want to associate their fav characters to things they deem "bad".

Like how most people forget about Jonathan's whole plot of being a pervert in S1 taking photos, because he's a good guy and generally liked. So that is often put into the perspective of "he was trying to protect her" or "he was just very in love!", which still wouldn't justify taking photos of someone without permission. Especially if that someone is naked.

But this stigma stops us from doing it. And people who have this conditions tend to also be in some way afraid to have this headcanons in fear of backlash.

And with with disabilities, there's this issue of society always thinking about disabled people as a them vs us. When it's actually an everyone at some point will join it except for some people that die young. And disabilities are seen as this unforseen thing that happens to others.

It's also commonly seen as this tragedy that someone cannot learn to live with. Almost every abled bodied person who has an interaction with a disabled person for the first time things/says something along the lines "I would rather kill myself/die" or "I would not be able to do this". But only after one does get disabled one can understand that you (not always, but very commonly) just have to learn to live like this. And it becomes at some point so much your normal, that if you became disabled after in life, your abled bodied life beforehand ends up looking very far away and sometimes you can even forget how living your life without it was.

But a lot of the times stories go for a big climax. Be it a very happy ending/getting what they wanted, or a tragedy (which is almost always with someone leaving the life of another by abandoning them or by death). And disabilities, with how they're still so stigmatized, if they aren't the more known ones, they will almost never appear.

It often creates (wrongfully) this idea that if the characters don't die but end up disabled and have that issue, it'll be anticlimactic. It won't be as much of a happy/sad ending.

Conclusion

[PT: Conclusion]

So, what could be done to stop this? Because with normalizing things being shown in media, can help people get educated on their existence/destigmatize them.

The best approach is to analize this biases that we have. And then look critically at our pieces and see why have we not written it? Is it important to the plot? To the character arc? If not maybe consider creating these lasting effects when characters have situations with a lot of action commonly. Consider if that character may have a disorder/mental illness/neurodivergency. Or what having one would change the story into.

Fanfiction is a passion based hobby. And everyone can and should only write what they want, no one is forced to do anything. But at least checking your own biases beforehand, even if you then don't add it, can help destigmatize these things in your head that we have absorbed subconsciously.

And it can also lead to new interesting plotlines and character driven subplots that without them wouldn't happen. How do the other characters react? What if that disability impacts their capabilities on the main plot to solve/fix. What obstacles would they have and what if that could make them have to take another route that could change everything.

Having these ideas as a possibility can lead to things one would've never thought of if not for them.

But also, it's very important to note that just putting a sticker on someone as in they have/are that and done, doesn't work. Because as everything else (race, sexuality, gender, sex, class,...) it affects a lot of everyday things. And it's like having a character be labeled something by the creator after the show has gone. Okay, cool about that. But it just seems tokenizing and trying to reach a minority minimum. They should be (as it is in real life) relevant in a lot of situations.

Hot take: Squatty potties should be required in all bathrooms cuz god damn.

#ibs c #ibs d #ibs #gut issues