Originally published on The Mighty

If you live with an illness or disability that doesn’t look the way others expect a disability to look, you know how common it is for people to accuse you of “not really being ill” or “faking it.” Sometimes these accusations can even lead to people refusing to provide you with disability services and assistance — something one airline passenger is fighting, after airport employees dismissed her invisible disability.

Nathalie Allport-Grantham, a 23-year-old from the U.K., told The Mighty she’s pursuing a formal complaint against London Stansted Airport after employees denied her assistance because she didn’t “look disabled.” Allport-Grantham has Ehlers-Danlos syndrome (EDS), Marfan syndrome and postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome (POTS).

She bought a ticket on a Ryanair flight from Stansted to Nice, France and requested wheelchair assistance at the time of purchase. When she and her boyfriend arrived at the airport on December 31, she was given a wheelchair and her boyfriend was asked to wheel her to the gate (this is standard practice at Stansted).

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Originally published on The Mighty

The opioid crisis has found its way into the Pearson family.

The second season of the hit NBC tearjerker “This Is Us” began earlier this fall with Kevin Pearson (Justin Hartley) getting the big break most actors dream of: a part in a movie opposite Sylvester Stallone. But after injuring his knee while filming an action sequence, Kevin turns to opioids to kill the pain — both physically and, as it quickly becomes clear, emotionally as well.

In the last few episodes, we’ve seen him washing down pills with alcohol, frantically calling every doctor he’s ever had asking for a refill on his prescription, forging a prescription for fentanyl, dealing with withdrawal symptoms and sabotaging his relationships. “Kevin, you’re spiraling,” Kevin’s ex-wife Sophie says worriedly.

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