Connected: Bodies, Media, and the Truth Beneath It

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Hello and welcome to another episode of Aphantasia Experiments. It’s been a while. I have some new headphones. I’m going for a walk. It’s a bit breezy, but I’m hoping this works because I have a lot to say.

Oh my gosh — I’m surrounded by dragonflies all of a sudden. I feel like this is an important podcast. I’m in a field and there’s like six dragonflies surrounding me. Nope. Seven. I don’t know. There’s a lot of dragonflies.

Okay. I have a lot to say today, and I feel like I wanted to talk about how everything’s kind of connected. And I don’t know… I have a hard time letting things go.

I wanted to talk about telepathy tapes, Justin Baldoni… this is so random. I’ve talked about him before. But the whole drama with Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds — and why it bothers me — because I really… I have not followed anything Hollywood in so long. I don’t care. I don’t care about actors. I don’t care about — because I just think, A) we’re all people. They’re just people pretending to be other people who get paid a shit ton of money. There’s no reason to idolize them. Like, at all. Right?

So, they’re just people. We’re all just people. I don’t think any individual needs to be idolized in any way. It’s like, we can all learn and grow up to each other.

Anyway, I don’t want to ramble about that.

And then I wanted to talk about connective tissue disorders. So this is like… why is this all connected? This is so random. I’ll start with the connective tissue disorder.

So — I’ve had a hard month. And it’s not the first hard month I’ve had. But thankfully, because of things like TikTok and Instagram and new young emerging doctors that are coming out with new perspectives on things, and actually learning new skills and educating themselves more than, you know…

Okay, I’m going to get to this. I’m like not explaining this well. You’re like, “What are you talking about?”

So this last month, I coughed and put a rib out. A couple ribs out. So I found out by going to the chiropractor that my bones are all, like, loosy-goosey. And that I have a connective tissue disorder called Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome.

And I feel like this is prevalent. I feel like a lot of people have this and don’t know they have it.

Oh my gosh, guys, I gotta stop and pick up some poop here. This is not ideal, I know. Okay, so I’m walking my dog. You’re like, “What??”

If you’re like me and you have a bendy body — like, people have said you’re hyper or flexible or double-jointed — then listen up here, okay? Listen up.

When I was a kid, my party trick was to put my inner elbows together. So like, if you put your hands out straight and hold your palms together, I could put my arms straight and then press my inner elbows together. Anyway, I have joints like that. They hyperextend more than they’re supposed to.

I never knew it was a problem. Ever. Until recently.

And it was my chiropractor that brought it up because I went to her with this excruciating pain after coughing, and my ribs just felt completely — like, I couldn’t move. I felt like I was dying.

Anyway, she felt all around, she had done an assessment on me, and she was moving my arms around — and they were dislocating on their own.

This is something I’ve lived with my whole life and didn’t even know was a thing.

My shoulders have dislocated so many times, but what happens is they subluxate. So basically, they half come out. Like with my ribs — they just kind of half came out.

So I’d be sitting there in this half-position, and any time I breathed funny, it would knock itself out again. So she would help me get it back in, and then any movement was terrible.

So why am I talking about this?

Because I think everything is connected. And I think the more we talk about connection, the more we can see those connections.

I asked on an Ehlers-Danlos board if anybody else had aphantasia. Why is this connected? Well — who knows? It could be, it couldn’t be. What I found — and of course if you ask a question on a board people will answer based on their interests — a lot of people were like, “Yes, I have it.” And others were like, “No, I have hyperphantasia.”

So I thought that was interesting — like, it’s hard to know if hyper-visuals are just normal for EDS folks, or what. But what popped into my head was an email I got from a guy named André.

I feel like I’ve talked about this before — maybe not — but I plan to one day have him on the show. He was talking about how he’s been trying to work on his visualization, and he’s been pressing on his eyelids. This goes back to Nikola Tesla and his stuff.

Anyway, I did stuff where I would flash lights in my eyes as part of my own experiments. And when I pressed on my eyes, I’d get pixelation — like a TV was turning on. Which made me think: what if we’re just not connected properly?

What if the brain is like a plug — and it’s just not connected quite right? Like our eyeballs are plugged in wrong?

And what if the people with connective tissue disorders are too connected in some ways? Like, the body gets stiff because it overcompensates?

What if their eyeballs are pushed back too hard — and their visualization is so extra?

It’s so windy. I hope this is okay. Maybe the universe is saying “Yes, you’re right, Robin — connective tissue disorder — look into that more for aphantasia.”

Anyway — so that’s my thing about that.

My ribs are much better now. Still struggling a little to breathe. But I have to be super mindful of everything I do, every movement I make. Because, ugh — when my shoulder comes out it’s painful, but I can at least control that more easily than ribs.

Your ribs control your breath — and every cough, every sneeze — it’s allergy season, and it’s brutal.

So yeah, I’m recovering from that.

If you’re wondering about your connective tissue, if this sounds familiar, look up the Beighton score. If you get six or more, they might diagnose you with EDS. I scored 9/9. I have all of them.

But they’re actually changing the criteria in 2026. They’re adding more — spine, hips, shoulders, wrists, ankles. So if you’re hypermobile in other joints, it’s worth looking into.

There’s more stuff I could say… maybe another day. Or maybe now? I don’t know.

I’ve had hormonal issues — like, when I was a teen, I’d get dizzy, have crazy heart palpitations. And now at 41 (not to give away my age, but I don’t care), I’m going through perimenopause. Same symptoms.

Fainting spells. Tachycardia — heart goes fast. Then bradycardia — heart goes really slow. My son has this too. And he’s at the age I was when I first had these symptoms. It’s so interesting.

Oh look, there’s a twin dog across the street — a big Bernedoodle that looks like mine.

If you’ve ever seen Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome on TV, Grey’s Anatomy has a couple episodes. But to me, they don’t really do it justice.

There was one where the girl dislocated her shoulder, and Alex Karev thought she was drunk. He almost sent her to rehab. But when she dislocated again, he realized it might be EDS — and Richard Webber was like, “Good job, you might’ve saved her life.”

And I keep thinking… when is my life going to be saved?

What do doctors even do? Most just look at you and say “Huh.”

I finally have a good functional/nutritional doctor, but honestly… most doctors suck. Not all. But still. I’m 41. I’ve been hypermobile my whole life, with heart issues, anxiety, dysautonomia, fainting — and nobody ever looked at my joints.

You can’t sit with me and not notice I’m hypermobile.

Anyway. That’s 41 years. But things are changing. There’s genetic testing now. I’m getting tested to see what kind I have. Not all types show up on genetic testing, but we’ll see.

Now — the Telepathy Tapes.

You know I’m a big fan. Kyle Dickins has the talk tracks out now and every episode is so good. There’s one where someone comes on as a skeptic, tries to disprove everything, and can’t. That’s important to listen to.

Why are we not talking about this? Why is this not the biggest news out there?

Which brings me back to Blake and Ryan.

Because the public, if you’re following the case, is very in favor of Justin Baldoni. And I am too. He’s been very transparent, and the media hasn’t.

The media just throws out stuff that benefits them. Blake and Ryan are clearly in the pockets of the New York Times and other outlets. They’re all in cahoots, and it’s so obvious.

So why does this matter?

Because the media shapes what we believe. What we see matters. Think about it: there were no female CSI workers — and then CSI aired, and suddenly women started entering the field. Representation matters.

What we read, what we watch — it informs what we believe. And if we’re being fed misinformation, we’re living in a false narrative.

If we start from consciousness, it changes everything.

I feel like it’s all connected. That’s why I wanted to talk about connective tissue disorders today.

If you want to learn more, Google it — or better yet, talk to ChatGPT. Look up Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome. If you get hives in the shower, or random hives — look up MCAS.

And if you’re hypermobile in any joints — what happens is your body overcompensates to keep your shit together. And then other stuff can happen.

Oh! Random fun fact: I started taking Quercetin for my MCAS symptoms — and I had a keloid scar on my back and it flattened out completely. Just poof, gone.

Anyway… that’s the end of my podcast. So random. I hope you have a great day.

Namaste. 🌀