Spoonies

[beej]

There is a lot this to this article, It makes me wonder just how far this goes in society. My suspicion is that a lot of the identity politics starts with, whatever you call this behavior.
https://www.commonsense.news/p/hurts-so-good

In July 2019, Morgan Cooper was in a hospital bed when her gastroenterologist, psychiatrist, internist, a few nurses, and her mother marched into her room. She was 16, and for four years Morgan had been having stomach pains every time she ate. It had gotten worse in high school. The doctors had tested her for allergies and ulcerative colitis and gastroparesis. All negative.

She had recently been diagnosed with median arcuate ligament syndrome—MALS, a vascular condition—and she was set to be operated on by a surgeon in Atlanta. But first she needed to gain 25 pounds, which wasn't going well. She was five foot seven, 98 pounds, and she was being fed through a tube placed in her stomach.

Cooper had lobbied for the tube after seeing other spoonies with it.

The spoonies were Cooper's whole world. She had discovered them late in 2018, right after she set up a separate Instagram account dedicated to her medical struggles (@morgansfight, which is no longer active). She told me the account was for updating the family and friends who were always asking how she was doing. But a single tap on the MALS hashtag—or the one for any other illness—instantly revealed a world of chronic illness sufferers who track their many pains, tests, diagnoses, and doctors visits online.

These were the spoonies. They were mostly young women, and it seemed like there were thousands of them. (There aren't strong spoonie stats available, but there are a ton of Facebook groups and pages—one with over 130,000 followers; nearly three million tagged Instagram posts; and videos garnering nearly 700 million views on TikTok. According to the CDC, six out of every ten Americans suffer from a chronic disease, with four in ten having two or more.)

Cooper created a YouTube channel, too. "I had one video just called 'I'm Sick' and the thumbnail was me crying," she told me. "On Instagram, whenever I would post a picture of me looking sad, or with pills in my hand, or in a wheelchair, it would get like 2,000 likes." Pictures of Cooper smiling would get about 100. 

The spoonies made Cooper feel less alone, but the more time she spent online with them, the skinnier she got. In her journal, she'd written: I don't know if I will live to see college. "It really felt true at the time," she told me.

[CNCAppsJames]

Social Contagion

[mkd]

..and so it was, the bitch slap came into being........

[Jeff]

That article was long and hard for me to follow.
Did she make YT and Instagram videos of her crying instead of smiling ONLY because they would get more likes and upvotes?
So this "disease" was fueled by other people in that social realm? Once she got away from them she started getting healthier?

[beej]

That article was long and hard for me to follow.
Did she make YT and Instagram videos of her crying instead of smiling ONLY because they would get more likes and upvotes?
So this "disease" was fueled by other people in that social realm? Once she got away from them she started getting healthier?

yes, that is exactly it. she no longer needed the feeding tube, she started gaining weight. And all of that behavior was so that she would not be able to have the surgery she needed so that she could get the attention from her suffering.

but here's the thing. Isn't that just the kind of behavior that get's us the Jussie Smollet saga and other vicimization. The story has really got me wondering how far this goes in society. How it affects race relations, and the MeToo movement. And probably if we are honest it exists in right wing stuff too, although I'm not sure where it manifests there, yet.

[Jeff]

The story has really got me wondering how far this goes in society.

I know the millenials LOVE labels. They NEED to feel like they belong to something whether it's a movement or a group or whatever. They need attention to feel validated.
Everything has to have a label of some sort.

Growing up with zero social skills because all they know is the internet and the anonymity from it has hurt them more than it has helped.

God forbid they actually call their friends and talk on the phone or go visit them at their house, or hell even play a pickup game of baseball football or basketball with the neighborhood kids.

[Jim at Gentex]

Sounds alot like Munchausen Syndrome

https://www.healthline.com/health/munchausen-syndrome-by-proxy

Munchausen syndrome is a mental disorder that causes a person with a deep-seated need for attention to fake sickness or injury. Munchausen syndrome by proxy (MSP) is a disorder in which the caretaker of a child either makes up fake symptoms or causes real symptoms to make it appear as though the child is injured or ill. The term "by proxy" means "through a substitute." Though MSP is primarily a mental illness, it's also considered a form of child abuse.

Many people with MSP exaggerate or lie about a child's symptoms to get attention. They may also create symptoms by poisoning food, withholding food, or causing an infection. Some people may even have a child undergo painful or risky tests and procedures to try to gain sympathy from their family members or community. It's also believed that people with MSP may enjoy the satisfaction of deceiving people whom they perceive to be more powerful than themselves, particularly medical professionals.

Many of these caretakers have caused the death of their children, and some have even used MSP successfully as a defense strategy in court in order to be confined to a mental health treatment facility instead of prison.

[CNCAppsJames]

So many of these petulant millennials have grown up their whole lives being told they were Hot Shit on a Silver Platter. By and large, they SHOULD have been told they were cold diarrhea on a paper plate and maybe they'd have a little fight in 'em.

[Jim at Gentex]

So many of these petulant millennials have grown up their whole lives being told they were Hot Shit on a Silver Platter. By and large, they SHOULD have been told they were cold diarrhea on a paper plate and maybe they'd have a little fight in 'em.

Yup.
If Trump does manage to get re-elected, we're gonna have to start buying popcorn in bulk quantities!