Meet Ashley Hightower, a 28 year-old-college graduate from an upper-middle-class family. Like a lot of us, she has severe anxiety, but she manages that with her coping mechanism of choice, which is having chronic IBS that she carries with her everywhere.
Ashley has lived alongside this enabling affliction for nearly a decade and, despite the mess she makes in every public bathroom she enters, she considers IBS to be an invisible illness and she’s hoping to spread awareness.
“Nobody sees the countless crumpled brown baby wipes, the bloody hemorrhoids, and the bed covered in empty foils of Gas-X that I’m saving for an art project at my Aunt’s gallery next March. All they see is a well-off white woman with a perfect rack. It’s really hard,” Ashley lamented.
Luckily, Ashley doesn’t have to deal with her delusions all alone. She has been an active member of a Facebook support group, Angels for IBS, for years. There, she has met other like-minded and foul-bowelled baddies who also never want to get better. The group has even provided Ashley access to exclusive scholarships and grants for disadvantaged people making an identity out of having IBS.
“It’s like Make-a-Wish, but for IBS and not terminal leukemia,” Ashley explained.
Angels for IBS gave Ashley the confidence to show her true self to people in her day-to-day life as well. “I joke with my coworkers about it now. I tell them all the juicy details. This one time I even yelled ‘My cup runneth over!’ as I ran down the hall to the bathroom, shit dripping down my leg. It’s been so freeing being able to live my truth,” Ashley said with a smile. She used to live a stifling life of not constantly sharing the intimate details of her bowels with anyone who will listen.
Ashley’s newfound confidence initially relieved some of her symptoms. However, she has always been very committed to her community and takes all necessary measures to keep suffering in loudness. “I had to up my intake of coffee and soft cheese at first, but thankfully I’m back to weaponizing my IBS as a get-out-of-jail-free card to bail on any of my commitments,” said Ashley.
Angels for IBS has recently partnered with another popular Facebook support group named Anemic5Ever to organize an outreach brunch targeting other boring young women. Both support groups value the safety of their communities and take a very serious anti-bullying stance. They warn that anyone using gaslighty or invalidating language suggesting there may be permanent solutions to either of these issues will be swiftly blocked.