Having a disability NEVER became cool, Poppy; being cruel did.

So, I saw a weird headline on social media today: “How having a disability became cool“. Oh dear lord, here we go again. Another author of “news” that is entirely made up… Deep sigh.

Poppy Coburn, Associate Comment Editor for The Telegraph, takes a pop at the “‘sickfluencers’, are turning chronic illness into a lifestyle trend”. Except the only ones using that word are news outlets trying to sell newspapers. It’s made up.

Two years on, there’s an avalanche of results talking about it. The thing is, all of those pages and pages of news articles are all quoting each other. It’s as if a whole trend has been summoned into being just so the people summoning it can be outraged.

Another title for this might have been: Why is the press so keen to demonise my people? Because the right-leaning whiney-bitch newspapers (such as The Sun and The Daily Mail) lead the charge in attacking people with mental health issues, coining the term “sickfluencer” back in 2024.

Disabled people living with mental health conditions came on the receiving end of an exponential surge in corporate media attacks against benefit claimants in 2024.

REVEALED: MSM disproportionately targets mental health-related DWP claimants in attack articles

This is the thing, there’s no such thing as a “sickfluencer”. It’s a BS term that the panic merchants want to sell you because hate and panic make money.

The DWP already apply rigorous means testing. Under the Conservatives, they turned that assessment up to 11 to placate the Daily Mail. The result was chaos, suffering, and deaths. There’s no free ride on benefits.

The mind boggles that people believe that sick people are getting £60,000. If that were the case, where’s my cash? Oh, right, it doesn’t exist.

Under both Conservative and Labour governments, the DWP have colluded with the press to demonise younger claimants living with mental health issues, ADHD and autism. Ministers have joined in, to create a smokescreen which obscures the politically inconvenient truth that the majority of those at risk of losing their personal independence payment (PIP) under the Green paper proposals are older people with physical health conditions – many of whom have worked all their adult life until they became ill.

Mental health PIP claimants demonised as cover for massive assault on physical health awards

Being disabled isn’t “suddenly cool”. The truth that so frightened these journalists is that suffering in silence is a thing of the past. I certainly gave up struggling unseen – I started a whole blog about it.

Just because I picked up a physical disability, it doesn’t make the mental health crap I suffer from any less real. Now I get a pass because I have a “real” disability. I’ve got a strange brain and a broken body – that’s twice as hard, not easier.

I’m not sitting back in my mansion raking in piles of cash. I’m spending money I don’t have to try and live my life somewhat normally. Yeah, I get a bit of PIP. It’s not a fortune. It covers a few cabs and some assistance. Just like everyone else, I have to budget as well as I can to get by. I am not part of the have-yachts; I’m part of the have-to-be-careful crew. Same as most everyone else.

Rather than reposting two-year-old Daily Mail BS, can we not have a journalist with a shred of journalistic integrity willing to call out the snowballing lie? But no. Apparently, Poppy would rather repeat the attack line given to her by the hate media just so there’s someone the rabid crowd can point out as “the reason things are bad”.

If the billionaire newspaper owners can get you hating the poor and the sick, maybe you won’t notice that they were the ones that fucked up the world.

Struggling weirdo’s like me are not the reason for the cost of living. We’re not trying to be cool. You are being lied to by the 1% through the mouthpiece of the likes of Poppy Coburn.

To end on a better note, here is a podcast taking a more level-headed approach to the silly headlines, including a guest who was on the direct receiving end of it.

https://open.spotify.com/episode/3UiRCxyRY7J3axVlXojyLn?si=OMPPHISjR3a_zFg5esmTfA

Syndicated to:

• website

#ADD #ADHD #billionaire #BritishNewspapers #dailyMail #DWP #PIP #PoppyCoburn #sickfluencers #sickfluencersDoNotExist #theSun

Is there a term for #ADHD specifically for music?

ADventures Heading up and Down, My ADHD cozy fantasy novel, will debut on Kickstarter on October 13! 🤩

There's also a little surprise for the first 24 hour backers, so make sure you click on the "Notify me on launch" button! 😊

https://kessem.com/kickstarter

#adhd #book #bookstodon #kickstarter @adhd @actuallyadhd @bookstodon

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The colorful cover of ADventures Heading up and Down, showing a fantastic roller coaster and other magical elements. Quote: What's wrong with turning your world upside down every now and then?

ADventures Heading up and Down, My ADHD cozy fantasy novel, will debut on Kickstarter on October 13! 🤩

There's also a little surprise for the first 24 hour backers, so make sure you click on the "Notify me on launch" button! 😊

https://kessem.com/kickstarter

#adhd #book #bookstodon #kickstarter @adhd @actuallyadhd @bookstodon

learning that the "bringing up unrelated subjects mid-conversation because of a really convoluted train of vaguely associated concepts" thing was an ADHD trait changed my life

#neurodivergent #adhd

For years I've struggled with a pattern I call "the void spiral". I try to work on a difficult solo project that I care about. I experience setbacks and feel negatively about myself. I avoid, by reading articles or watching YouTube videos or playing puzzles or lying on the floor. I feel worse about myself. I avoid more. It becomes so bad that I'm avoiding 11 hours out of a planned 8 hour work day. This is the void.

I think this is a common problem in academia, especially in theoretically-focused positions, but we often feel like we're uniquely failing. It also seems to be exacerbated by neurodivergences and mental health difficulties such as ADHD and depression.

I wrote a series of blog posts about the void and my strategies for it. If you experience the void, I'd love to be in touch. We don't have to go through this alone.

https://isaacg1.github.io/2026/07/15/adhd-and-avoidance.html
https://isaacg1.github.io/2026/08/24/refining-the-void.html
https://isaacg1.github.io/2026/09/10/igloos-against-the-void.html

#adhd #academia #mentalhealth #depression #procrastination

My #ADHD *strongly* believes I am a far bigger gamer than I am, given the number of unplayed games & underused devices I own. 😅

And, based on the number of playmats, it believes I am playing Magic: The Gathering at a rate 1000x of reality. 😂

Time for a new #introduction post after the migration!

I'm Sar, a 50yr old nerd from Northern Ireland. I love IT, and am into tech and all things computing.

My hobbies include playing #worldofwarcraft, reading about World Of #warcraft and thinking about #wow.

Seriously though, my other hobbies also include:
#astronomy
#linux (Primarily #archlinux)
#gaming on #steam, #switch & #ps5 (mainly #pcgaming though, see above!)
#scifi such as #starwars, #startrek, #babylon5, #marvel & #dc etc

Also a screenshot junkie #virtualphotography

I've been officially diagnosed with #autism, and am also fairly confident I have #adhd as well, giving me the #audhd super-deluxe wombo-combo 😉

I did run a #Mastodon instance for 10 months up until Sep 2026, but decided to migrate to #GoToSocial, for easier and faster administration & maintenance reasons.

Also, how many of you internalized the "bad at math" narrative, presented to you NOT because you couldn't find the answers but because you couldn't understand the way teachers explained the steps to you?

show of hands?

#ADHD #ActuallyAutistic

Being #AuDHD is like being trapped in a car with a maniac who is running away from the cops. #autism #ADHD #neurodivergent

I wrote a blog post, perhaps my last? It's about autists living in an NT world — what it looks like from the inside.

It's called "A Life Inside", and you can read it here: https://carelesstalkblog.wordpress.com/2026/09/12/a-life-inside/

#Autism
#ADHD
#AuDHD
#neurodiversity
#neurodivergence

Maybe a boost, too? 🙏

I just inquired about NJ Devils season tickets. $5 says I'll totally forget I asked about it before they write me back and it will be a pleasant surprise.

#hockey #nhl #njdevils #adhd

I made a new t-shirt design for the new TeePublic shop. I don’t have an ADHD shirt design for it, just autistic, AuDHD, and neurodivergent. There must be an ADHD one. What do you think?

#ADHD

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black t-shirt mockup with “Sounds ADHD AF I’m In!” the “ADHD AF” is in a purple, pink, orange color gradient blend.

@autistics
Announcement: #Voxelibre multiplayer casual game today (Sat) for 4 hours in the late afternoon to evening (North America). That's in about 5 hours from now.

Creating minecart tracks (and of course minecart rides) will be a focus today, better linking up developed regions of the map.

Voxelibre is a free and #OpenSource crafting and mining voxel game, available in the #luanti game engine.

Damage has been turned off. People with #Autism, #ADHD or #AuDHD are invited. We also have a #Deltachat group for game-related discussion. More details here: https://
docs.autis.toque.im/
(You can join with pretty much any device which **isn't** an iPad/iPhone)

@AAKL
The medical community keeps finding links, declaring one causes the other, then eventually back tracks all while ignoring the probability that ADHD and gut symptoms aren't related directly but are both symptoms of Ehler's Danlos... But god forbid a doctor think of a zebra when they hear hoofbeats. Even there "myth" that cracking your knuckles leads to arthritis is busted without ever stopping to realize if you have EDS then your more likely to crack your knuckles (and other joints) and also have arthritis earlier than most.

Bottom line: Start researching "rare" diseases and you'll start finding a ton of interesting connections and help make countless lives better.

I'll get off my soapbox, sorry.

#ADHD #EDS #ChronicIllness #EhlersDanlos

PSA.

"People with ADHD had nearly double the odds of constipation, 58% higher odds of irritable bowel syndrome, and more than four times the odds of encopresis."

Science Daily, posted yesterday: Study of 1.9 million people finds a striking link between ADHD and gut problems https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2026/09/260911003840.htm #ADHD

The way my AuDHD self chortled😂

#adhd #neurodivergent #autism #audhd #memes

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Black text on a white banner that reads "The Official ADHD houseplant." Underneath is a pic of old potatoes, sprouting.

For years, I had a great shrink who devoutly believed, AFAIK, that #ADHD didn't exist, didn't matter, or didn't apply to me.
I'm still angry.

Please satisfy my curiosity, and maybe yours too, by answering this poll, and reposting for a bigger sample size? 🙏 Thanks! 😀

Do you think in words and/or pictures, or do you think in patterns, as I do, and many other autists too?

#Autism
#ADHD
#AuDHD

There is actually no #evidence suggesting that #paracetamol/ #acetaminophen use during #pregnancy might cause #autism or #ADHD.

https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamainternalmedicine/article-abstract/2850980

Way I'm starting to see #ADHD and #Autism isn't that they're disorders, they only appear that way because society has changed to privilege the people now called neurotypical while causing problems for the now neurodivergent. It's why a lot of people think neurodivergence is a new thing: Until society disordered itself to exclude us, it wasn't as such a big, visible problem.

Me: “Alright, I have *almost* figured out the correct stain formulation for these kitchen cabinets. Now I just need to figure out the finish procedure, how many coats, if I need to add a catalyst…”

My brain: “Oh good job, you! Mission accomplished! Time to switch gears and figure out the best way to do laundry, using science and chemistry!”

#ADHD #AuDHD #Laundry