Tag: hypermobility

Check Your Imposter Syndrome

What ever does Imposter Syndrome have to do with my connective tissue disorders and autism, Jan? Well… possibly a lot. First off, what is Imposter Syndrome? Well, at its heart, it’s a feeling that one doesn’t belong in a given community, or at the level they are operating in a given community. Whether as an

No Group is a Monolith

I had absolutely NO idea when I fell down the Ehlers-Danlos Syndromes rabbit-hole back in 2012 suddenly landing in a wheelchair that I would end up falling down several other massively long rabbit-holes with yet other rabbit-holes attached, ack! Much less that I would stop walking for a year, and end up using crutches and

Happy Fifth Birthday Oh TWIST!

Lordy time flies you guys! I was just updating my WordPress theme and all my plugins tonight ahead of upgrading to Gutenberg when I realized I’ve been running this blog for five years now, wow! Happy Birthday to me! Both me and the blog have moved a couple of times since 2014 – hopefully fairly

Peeling the Diagnostic Onion

This isn’t going to be a post on how specifically to diagnose the Ehlers-Danlos syndromes (EDS) or Hypermobility Spectrum Disorders (HSD) per se, as that’s already been covered here. Rather, I want to draw attention to the many “red herrings” or false leads that we and our doctors often identify and manage to recognize and

Beware of Gatekeeping

I’m doing a lot of warning lately, aren’t I? “Beware of Hammer Syndrome” last month. And now, “Beware of Gatekeeping” this month. Hey, it’s October 2018 as I’m hatching this post, so it sort of fits with the Halloween mood, right? (Beware of Ghosts! Boo!) Editors note: This post was first made available in early

Beware of Hammer Syndrome

Hammer syndrome? Wait a minute Jan – you’re already talking about Hypermobility Spectrum Disorders (HSD), multiple Ehlers-Danlos syndromes (EDS), Mast Cell Activation Syndrome (MCAS), and Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome (POTS) among other things. You could say you’ve put the “syn” in syndromes, don’t you think? So what’s “Hammer Syndrome”?? Good news: it’s not a disease

Ableism Awareness Month

April is widely known as “Autism Awareness Month“. However, since following several actually autistic writers and bloggers on Twitter and elsewhere, I’ve come to understand how even calling it that may be “ableist”. (Google the hashtags #ActuallyAutistic and #RedInstead for some samples.) How is that you well ask? What is ableism? Great question! And why

Weight and EDS and MCAD

This post is apt to be fraught with emotional triggers and landmines due to the nature of the subject itself. Weight loss and management have been a sore point for millions of people for many years, especially in the post war era in the so-called “first world” when big oil and the chemical industry radically