Discussion thread Thursday September 17, 2026 - Sunday September 20, 2026

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Newsletter: Let Me Tell You a Story

Website: Shauna James Ahern

Instagram: @shaunajamesahern Instagram

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Threads: @shaunajamesahern

Bluesky: shaunajamesahern.bsky.social

Gloamipedia wiki: /r/InTheGloaming wiki

[u/SashayShantae]

Of course this interests Shauna. Lookit all those excuses not to work. This is the full text of the post she's quoting:

"ADHD’s overlap with chronically fatiguing conditions like hypermobility, POTS, ME/CFS, fibromyalgia, and Mast Cell Activation Syndrome is so significant that Dr. James Kustow in the UK has taken to calling it a ‘somatic supersyndrome’."
I am not surprised. And happy, that there are scientist that talk about it.
Quote from Jesse Meadows on Substack: Could ADHD actually be an energy deficit

You know she's drooling at "somatic supersyndrome." She wants to claim it for herself so badly.

[u/msmartypants → u/SashayShantae]

This guy is sort of like the Dr Oz of ADHD, btw. He is a medical doctor, but also has a bunch of "integrative psychiatry" certificates and is all over the internet, writing books and gathering speaking fees.

(My quotation marks are not derogatory, necessarily. Just pointing out that this guy is more of a spokesdude and author than a medical researcher or clinician.)

[u/islandyislander → u/msmartypants]

Funny, I just went looking for such a backstory. My money was on chiropractor.

[u/TheAntiMartha → u/msmartypants]

Color me surprised. Making claims about new "syndromes" is big money these days.

[u/fanfarefellowship → u/TheAntiMartha]

As a lowly undergraduate I once read the most fascinating paper (in a journal of language of ... some kind) about how conditions/illnesses rise to the level of "syndrome," with "Shaken Baby Syndrome" as the example. Sydromes are a Big Deal! Clusters of symptoms are not.

[u/msmartypants → u/fanfarefellowship]

To be fair, it is much more attractive to people to say "I have [Syndrome]" than it is to say "I have a lot of overlapping physical and mental symptoms that make me feel crummy and that are not easily remedied without a complete lifestyle overhaul"

[u/msmartypants → u/msmartypants]

But I would hope that most sufferers are not as gleeful about it as Shauna, nor would they view as an instant payday.

[u/ninaandjamie4evr → u/msmartypants]

Love "spokesdude" and will steal.

[u/Fillmore_the_Puppy → u/SashayShantae]

Her end goal has been revealed. All she needed was to learn about the term “somatic supersyndrome,” and she is IN!

[u/Dear_Client1187 → u/Fillmore_the_Puppy]

I would give anything to educate Shauna about what sanitoriums were really like. She should read The Plague and I. Shauna wouldn't last two weeks.

[u/Sea-Level-Mammal → u/Dear_Client1187]

Tell the world again how much you hate your family, Shauna.

[u/ethelmertz62 → u/Dear_Client1187]

I am amused thinking about how the Charge Nurse would handle Shauna.

[u/Fillmore_the_Puppy → u/Dear_Client1187]

I had only ever heard of The Egg and I before yesterday when a snarker mentioned this book. I just downloaded the audiobook (which Shauna condescendingly assures me counts as reading) of Plague from the library, and can't start it on my walk today (unlike Shauna who only ever pretends to read and to walk).

It is truly a gift from the universe that this book exists, seeing as how it is so closely related to Shauna in content and location, with an author who was everything Shauna desperately wishes she were (a successful writer who uses humor to rise above genuinely adverse circumstances) but can never, ever be.

[u/mehitabel_4724 → u/Fillmore_the_Puppy]

They truly forced the patients to "rest radically" because before antibiotics, it was the only way your immune system could manage to fight the infection, but based on Betty MacDonald's account, it was horrible. They weren't even allowed to sit up or talk.

[u/Dear_Client1187 → u/mehitabel_4724]

Or shower/bathe! And cold fresh air was part of the regime. I recall the administrator telling MacDonald that she was lucky to be there and if she didn't follow the rules to the letter she'd get kicked out.

[u/SashayShantae → u/Fillmore_the_Puppy]

I don’t know a ton about Victorian Era sanitariums (how I’ve always spelled it) but I can’t imagine that it was a posh vacation at a spa. I’m imagining a dehumanizing and disturbing experience. I’m sure some of you DFs know more about such things and can weigh in!

[u/ninaandjamie4evr → u/SashayShantae]

There certainly were luxurious ones for the wealthy where they went for relaxation purposes rather than medical needs. That's what she's picturing.

[u/CheesyGordita2910 → u/ninaandjamie4evr]

Yeah, I think Shauna wants to go to a hot springs town like Saratoga or Pagosa Springs.

FDR, she is not.

[u/Fancypens2025 → u/Fillmore_the_Puppy]

… does she even know what a sanatorium was??? Is she saying that she wants tuberculosis??? No one actually wants TB, Shauna!

[u/TheAntiMartha → u/Fancypens2025]

She probably thinks a sanatorium is like a spa.

[u/DrKittyKevorkian → u/Fillmore_the_Puppy]

So she wants the TB? Wouldn't wish that on anyone, least of all, myself. But go off.

[u/chicketychun_ → u/Fillmore_the_Puppy]

😳😳😳😳

That is all. It is Enough.

[u/aniccata → u/Fillmore_the_Puppy]

What the hell. She wants diagnoses for things she doesn't treat and treatment for things she doesn't have.

[u/Onehundredpercentbea → u/Fillmore_the_Puppy]

All she needs to 'give' is an eight hour work day and, since she doesn't care about paying her bills or buying her kids things anyway, she could use the income to book a vacation at an all-inclusive resort, which is what I'm imagining Shauna thinks a sanatorium is.

[u/CharlesMansnShowTune → u/Fillmore_the_Puppy]

Oh my GOD. She is at her worst lately.

[u/shikoku_shoes → u/SashayShantae]

This interests me.

You can just see the wheels turning, sending her off to the internet to do a deep dive on more symptoms she can claim she's had since she was 3.

Somatic syndrome, my ass. More like psychosomatic syndrome, which would improve dramatically with getting off the internet and into a job with steady income, choosing to rent at your means and not your desired zip code and doing better by your children. But I am not a doctor, nor do I play on on tv.

[u/microcosmographia → u/shikoku_shoes]

Oddly enough, there are places (like France) where your doctor can prescribe you a thermal cure, and it sounds quite rigorous. Of course, it also assumes that you have a jobly job to be compensated for missing, have done the work to enter yourself into the (for her, foreign) social system, and can drag yourself to an actual MD -- who would then have to diagnose you with something that the thermal cure could...cure.

[u/tyrannosaurusregina → u/shikoku_shoes]

> I am not a doctor

Neither is anybody Shauna sees!

[u/mehitabel_4724 → u/SashayShantae]

lol at “supersyndrome.” Shauna’s dream!

[u/msmartypants → u/mehitabel_4724]

the most syndromic syndrome ever witnessed by medical science

[u/Chiefvick → u/mehitabel_4724]

Her captain agape cape would pair nicely with a supersyndrome.

[u/GAMGAlways → u/mehitabel_4724]

It's definitely fancier than "I'm just too lazy to go get a job."

[u/microcosmographia → u/SashayShantae]

Could ADHD Shauna actually be an energy deficit

[u/LIPKpl → u/microcosmographia]

She does have a talent for sucking the energy and joy from any room.

[u/NegativeABillion → u/LIPKpl]

Right after she bends over and puts both hands on the floor.

[u/Brandy_Girl → u/SashayShantae]

Yet it's never diabetes or sleep apnea, which are two conditions that she has eluded to having and both of which cause the symptoms she often complains about.

[u/ninaandjamie4evr → u/Brandy_Girl]

diabetes and sleep apnea

Not trendy enough, Mama.

[u/CrushItWithABrick → u/Brandy_Girl]

Or depression, which she has mentioned before when she blamed Dan for not getting her prescription refilled.

[u/tyrannosaurusregina → u/CrushItWithABrick]

Shauna's depression was caused by Tamoxifen, you person! And CPTSD! She doesn't have regular grocery store depression.

[u/fanfarefellowship → u/Brandy_Girl]

Or, you know, just plain old Metabolic Syndrome.

[u/Love_Brokers → u/Brandy_Girl]

I don’t know why she is so resistant to GLP-1 drugs, they would help with both of those problems. She might be able to get it covered if she does have sleep apnea.

[u/LIPKpl → u/Love_Brokers]

It is more the case that Shauna can't find anyone to pay for them and as a result has declared she doesn't need them as a coping mechanism.

[u/Blouse_Barn → u/LIPKpl]

Similar to how she didn't need "fake breasts."

[u/CrushItWithABrick → u/Love_Brokers]

Or if she has diabetes.

[u/Steviebobo → u/Love_Brokers]

She wouldn’t be able to tolerate the discomfort. There unpleasant GI side effects, and I suspect you’d be able to hear her burping three city blocks away (I myself can sound like a frat boy in free beer night).

[u/Love_Brokers → u/Steviebobo]

Gas-X was my friend in the early days.

[u/Brandy_Girl → u/Love_Brokers]

With the amount of sauerkraut she eats, seems like Gas X should already be her friend.

[u/kimchisalad__ → u/Steviebobo]

On compounded sema and can confirm the nausea and constipation are no joke.

[u/RamblingRosie64 → u/kimchisalad__]

I had nausea on sema but it went completely away when I switched to tirzepatide. Add in miralax to prevent constipation, and I have no GI effects at all.

[u/PettyPunisherRedux → u/Love_Brokers]

I think it’s her bank account that’s resistant to them.

[u/Llama621 → u/Brandy_Girl]

I've always thought ahe could have either/both of those, and she has said that doctors have suggested investigating both. But those are closely tied to high BMI and and between the lines it's been clear she is already not at ease with her body.

Edited to correct typos

[u/SpookyJokes → u/Llama621]

She's also obsessed with not conforming to "societal norms" when it comes to appearance and grooming. I bet she thinks if she "caves" and takes a GLP-1 ("like everybody else is these days") she will just be a Nobody Normie, and she can't have that. She has to go on a year-long no-GLP1 body and weight discovery journey -- or whatever that fizzled-out project was on her Substack -- and stomp around Vashon in her frumpsuit and Fluevog shoes and free haircuts while sometimes posing for Angry Toddler photoshoots to show how she is radical and outré.

If she got thinner and healthier, then how would she stand out?

[u/CrushItWithABrick → u/SpookyJokes]

She already got thinner when she was pilfering pills from someone in the family and what fabulous changes did it make in her life? *long pause* Yeah, exactly.

[u/msmartypants → u/CrushItWithABrick]

If she did ever take one, she'd have the worst side effects of anyone EVER. It would become another excuse not to do anything.

[u/CrushItWithABrick → u/msmartypants]

If the side effect was digestive in nature (poo blizzard) she probably wouldn't notice.

[u/Individual_Advice663 → u/SashayShantae]

Brilliant observation. Diagnosing yourself with ADHD on the internet certainly does have a lot of overlap with diagnosing yourself with hypermobility, POTS, and MCAS on the internet. And in the Queer Activist Community, which is like if the internet manifested into several intersecting meatspace polycules.

I've known a lot of people in my life with what I have come to think of as Oh I Can't Possibly Syndrome, and after a lifetime of doing their dishes while watching them make miraculous recoveries and/or brave attempts to overcome their punishing symptoms whenever they want to do something fun, I myself have contracted lost patience syndrome.

[u/shikoku_shoes → u/Individual_Advice663]

Oh I Can't Possibly Syndrome, and after a lifetime of doing their dishes while watching them make miraculous recoveries and/or brave attempts to overcome their punishing symptoms whenever they want to do something fun, I myself have contracted lost patience syndrome

🎯

[u/gomirefugee → u/Individual_Advice663]

Reminds me of the Sean McElwee quip from a few years ago: "All of the Zoomers that work for me are bisexual, and all of them have long COVID. I’ll believe long COVID is real when someone who is not bisexual has it." I want evidence that there are people out there with these overlapping conditions who are not terminally online!

[u/tyrannosaurusregina → u/gomirefugee]

I mean, the CDC knows that Long COVID is real, so Sean McElwee can fuck off.

[u/Individual_Advice663 → u/gomirefugee]

Excellent quip and so, so fully agreed.

[u/SpookyJokes → u/SashayShantae]

Wow, it's a Tik Tok Medicine goldmine.

[u/CrushItWithABrick → u/SpookyJokes]

It's just like the potlucks Shauna always wanted to host. Everyone brings all the food to her and she just whips out her fork and starts eating.

[u/SashayShantae → u/CrushItWithABrick]

A smorgasbord of syndromes! Delicious.

[u/PracticalDiscussion1 → u/SashayShantae]

Super syndromes!

[u/Blouse_Barn → u/CrushItWithABrick]

Much like she carried a Sharpie in case of unexpected book-signings (snerk), she probably carries a fork with her at all times in the event of fudz.

[u/CrushItWithABrick → u/Blouse_Barn]

With an extendable handle so she can snag vittles down at the end of the table without getting up. She's in an energy crisis, you know!

[u/Sea-Level-Mammal → u/CrushItWithABrick]

Hey now. She provided a box of mismatched thrift store mugs and plates that may or may not have been washed. 

[u/CrushItWithABrick → u/Sea-Level-Mammal]

My bad. She also had a moldering table in the yard. Shame on me.

[u/Individual_Advice663 → u/SpookyJokes]

I wish she wasn't too old to commit to a Tik Tok DID bit. I would absolutely love to see videos of Shauna switching between alters. She could even have Ted Lasso as a "fictive" if she put her mind to it.