• We suffer from debilitating sinus headaches due to severe injuries to our nose and sinuses.
  These happen almost every day with little to no relief and prevent us from functioning.

  Humidifiers and saline sprays help, but it is a lot of maintenance.

• We have allodynia, which means that normally painless touch is painful.
  The amount varies around the body, but it's worst on and near our head and neck.
  We've always been unable to wear headphones because it feels like they're crushing our head in a vice.

  We always wear loose-fitting clothing, and our glasses need to be worn with a soft wrapping around the frames.

• We have damage to our right arm and wrist related to our nerves, and possibly to our hEDS.
  We've been treated for carpal and cubital tunnel, but neither fully helped.
  We still don't know what to do and sometimes have to stop coding or drawing suddenly, or type with one hand.
  We currently suspect our right shoulder especially as a culprit. It has a SLAP tear.

• We have

  ARFID

  Avoidant Restrictive Food Intake Disorder

  . Go to its section for full details.
  Despite the fact we almost only eat snacks and fast food, we are not enjoying this.

• And of course,

  we have DID

  Dissociative Identity Disorder

  , because we are a plural system formed through childhood trauma.
  A DID diagnosis requires impairment to daily lives of us and others, plus the effort of getting diagnosed.
  For that reason, a lot of traumagenic systems identify with DID or OSDD without a diagnosis.
  We believe we deserve the same.

  Read more on our plurality in the FAQ tab.

Other than these, we have:

• Carpal tunnel*

  Had carpal tunnel release for both arms in 2025
• Cubital tunnel*

  Had cubital tunnel release for both elbows in 2025
• Herniated discs in neck
• Neck and shoulder pain from fibro
• Restless legs syndrome
• Strong cramps in right ankle
• GERD

And your usual selection of mental issues:

• Autism
• Bipolar
• ADHD

  A damn huge dick
• Anxiety
• Depressive disorder
• "Anger issues"
• OCD

You'd think most people with a serious health condition would know what it is.

Sunny grew up with a neurotypical family who hasn't suffered almost any health problems, and were never any help.
Throughout our life, our symptoms mystified every doctor we went to, be it a pediatrician, rheumatologist, neurologist, or otherwise.
I've been searching for an answer to our health problems for many years. I keep on finding things that sound right on the surface, or almost add up, but are unlikely or impossible.
We're very familiar with the dangers of self-diagnosis. But no amount of "I did my research" or "I'm dead certain of it" convinces anyone.

We have been diagnosed with Fibromyalgia, and know it's responsible for at least some of our symptoms, but not all of them.
This year, we discovered hypermobility Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome, a rare condition that lines up far too well with our life experiences.
Read here for how extensively our symptoms match hEDS, and why we suspect it so strongly.
Even so, we can't get any doctors to investigate our symptoms. We've only had two doctors suspect we have EDS, and even they admitted their other EDS patients have way worse cases.

My point is, we still don't know where our symptoms come from. We do have fibro, but it doesn't explain everything. There is some pain that turned out to be conversion disorder due to trauma, which went away when I was able to process things that happened to us. But that still leaves the rest.
Really do read this weblog post I linked above, it has a list of many of these symptoms.

For example, we have a problem where wearing anything on our head hurts a lot, with crushing, tingling pain, that persists for hours after taking it off. Sunny has had this since some point in their youth, and couldn't wear headphones.
I looked it up, and found the term "compression headaches". I knew it wasn't that, but that term helped describe the pain. I went to my PCP and complained of compression headaches. I got a referral to a neurologist. The neurologist gave me cortisol injections in my neck, which did nothing. Later, he gave me botox injections in many points on my head, face, and neck, which also did nothing.
Later on, this year, I went to a rheumatologist, who diagnosed me with fibromyalgia, gave me a far too low dose of Gabapentin (100mg once a day). My PCP upped me to 600mg twice a day, where it should've been. The rheumatologist refused to treat our potential hEDS, handwaved us to contact a university of genetics, and walked out.
It's this, constantly, endlessly. Chasing help for our symptoms is like hunting for bigfoot. Getting a diagnosis for fibro was a very welcome surprise, and might be some of the only progress we can point to.

We have a set list of safe foods. Eating anything outside of this ranges from risky to impossible.
Trying new foods is legitimately terrifying to the point of panic attacks.
Not to mention, our mind has often "made up its mind" before we've even tried the food.
Even if it tastes okay to you, it can still cause us horrible anxiety and meltdowns.

Partly because of our ARFID, food is a trigger for us.
Don't talk to us about it unless you're very careful, and don't ever show us food pictures.
Above all, please be kind and understanding about it. Most have never heard of ARFID.
Some rationalize it as "childish". Some insist "how can you know if you haven't tried it?"

We are fully aware we have a limited diet that may deprive us of important nutrients.
Don't act like it's a death sentence. We've lived with this for all our life already.
No amount of fighting ARFID by force gets us anywhere.
In the few time spans we've eaten "healthier", we've experienced no improvement.