I am the coiner of MUD and this is an educational post designed to tell you about MUDs. I will try and cover as much as possible but I can't guarantee I'll cover everything. This is a long post and took me a while to make. Boosts would be appreciated/nf.
MUD stand for medically unrecognised disorder and refers to any disorder not recognised by the medical community. The opposite to MUD is MRD(medically recognised disorders). MUDs can be split up into 5 subcatergorys which I will outline below.
1. Coined Disorders (CDs)
Coined disorders are disorder coined by those in the MUD community, often to describe their own expriences. CDs collect together related disordered expriences and give them a name and with it, the potenial to build a community.
CDs popped up a few times in the radqueer community, which is what inspired me to coin the MUD umbrella. CDs are the biggest part of the MUD community and what the majority of this post will focus on. When most people talk about MUDs they mean CDs and some think that MUD can only mean CDs but this is not the case.
2. Disordered Identities (DIs)
Disordered identities are when one considers their identity disordered. This could be because that identity is tied to trauma or an existing disorder, the identity brings them dysphoria/distress, as a method of reclamanation, etc. Someone having a DI does not indicate that they think everyone with that identity is inherently disordered.
3. Partially Medically Recognised Disorders (P-MRDs)
P-MRD refers to any disorder that is recognised partially. For example, maladaptive daydreaming is a P-MRD as they have been studies done and a proposed critera written up, all by medical professionals. Due to them being partially recognised, MUD is an opt-in label for those with P-MRDs.
4. Former Medically Recognised Disorders (F-MRDs)
F-MRD refers to any disorder that used to be medically recognised but no longer is. Many disorders have been disavowed by the medical community, often for good reason, but this does not mean that no one will ever feel described by them. Having a F-MRD does not inherently mean you think that disorder should be recognised again.
I was hesitant to include these, which is why they aren't included in the orginal MUD coining post but I have since decided I should. Xenomalady refers to a fictional disability/disorder/disease that cannot exist in this world. An example of this is hanahaki disease, a disease which can occur in those with unrequited love causing then to cough up flower petals.
Xenomalady is most often used in a transid sense, someone who identifies as having a xenomalady even though they do not bodily have the symptoms. There is some who consider themselves cisxenomalady though. This might be because they exprience it in headspace, they had it in a past life, they have a delusion of currently having it, they are a reality shifter who has it in their DR, etc.
Anyone! Although I am radqueer, you do not have to be radqueer or support radqueers to use/coin MUDs. You do not have to support every type of MUD or support every MUD user to identfy with MUDs. I am not a gatekeeper, this term is open to anyone.
Why do people coin disorders?
This will depend on the coiner but most often to describe their own disordered expriences. A disordered exprience is any exprience that cause distress outside of healthy reactions (it is healthy to react with distress to certian things e.g the death of a loved one). Putting a name to one's expriences enables one to look at them more closely, learn what may of caused them, learn how to cope with them and connect with a community of others like them. The point of MUDs is to build communities and to recognise ones own expriences.
No, MUDs are a term, terms do not have opnions. I can only speak for myself, I am pro recovery-choice meaning I support people being able to choose whether they want to "recover" or not and how they want to do so. I do want to recover from some of my MUDs, though not all, and the MUD community has helped me do so. Being able to explain and explore my symptoms has greatly helped me. This is not metioning that some can't recover for whatever reason.
Can MUDs/CDs be physical?
Yes. Although I've seen a lot more mental CDs than physical CDs, a CD can be either, both or neither.
Yes, this is on my to be coined list.
Do those with MUDs want to be medically recognised?
This will depend on the individual. I personally feel that the medical community should recognise the right of people to use their own terms to describe their own exprience. I am pro reformation of the medical system so to me medical recognition looks very different than just each MUD being added to the DSM.
Can those with MUDs call themself disabled?
If they feel disabled by their MUDs, sure. A lot of those with MUDs also have MRDs that might cause them to be disabled as well.
You can search "medically unrecognised disorder" to find MUDs as well as those in the community. The most comprehensive archive I know of is this rentry made by @/arctic-fox-queer.
You can contact arctic to add any MUDs currently not in the archive
Wet dirt <3
MUD
MUD adjacent terminology
Former MRD
Partially MRDs
Medic
If you have any questions about MUDs, feel free to ask me an I will do my best to answer. If I think of more to add, I will reblog with additions. Feel free to make your own additions if wanted.
