In Bed with hEDS: My Symptoms

Addison's Agenda
10 min readNov 15, 2023

A list of the 39 symptoms and effects of hypermobile Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome that I have been diagnosed with over the years and more.

Since completing my first run of Ask Addi, I have turned to raising awareness for the disability that affects me and my child, hypermobile Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome (hEDS). This genetic disorder weakens the connective tissue in the body, causing myriad effects. This limited video series, filmed on the days I have to call off from work due to hEDS symptoms, examines those effects.

Hello, humans. I’m Addi Smith.

Welcome back to my bed, as I have called off from work yet again. In this episode, I will do something I usually don’t like to talk about. I’m going to list everything that is wrong with this body- everything that can be connected to hypermobile Ehlers-Danlos syndrome, or h.E.D.S., hEDS.

Welcome to In Bed with hEDS.

I don’t like talking about this because it’s personal. And frankly, I don’t like people knowing what I’m dealing with because I don’t want to be seen as weak or frail. In certain ways, I am, and I don’t like admitting it. Also, there are people with the same disorder who have more going on than I do. Still, I think people need to know what hEDS is so…

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Addison's Agenda

Addison Smith is an LGBTQ+ and disability educator and activist living in the Midwest with their cat. They/She. More info at https://addisonsagenda.com