I haven't had time to thumb through this thread, so I apologize if this girl has already been mentioned. I've considered starting a separate thread dedicated to her, but I'm unsure if she'd garner enough interest to sustain one. Mentioning her here seems like the better choice (at least for now.)
Meet Katy Gough, a woman in her early twenties residing in South Wales, United Kingdom.
Katy once ran a youtube channel called LetsTalkTics. It began with a sudden development of what she called a "fish sound" of an unknown and inorganic origin at the age of 17 that she documented and uploaded. Sure enough, she soon began jerking her head and was diagnosed with tourettes syndrome. More tics, including coprolalia, began to follow. Katy has no prior history of tics, but was being treated for panic disorder, OCD and depression before she began experiencing them. She also claimed to have sensory processing disorder during this period. Unfortunately Katy has since deleted the channel and I cannot find any mirrors or re-uploads. I regret not saving or archiving any of her old videos. CNN still has an
article up about her former channel. For further information here's an
interview she conducted around this time.
At age 18, Katy was diagnosed with aspergers syndrome. Katy currently has a channel entitled
Invisible I. Katy now primarily discusses Autism Spectrum Disorders. She rarely discusses tourettes today and no longer tics in videos. Katy has a video explaining this:
For those particularly curious in how her tourettes presented, I skipped to a compilation featured in the previous video of some of her past tics (Katy omitted the swearing. She used to say "fuck off" and claimed it was because she gained relief from the 'f' sound.)
Tic Compilation:
You may notice she's wearing gloves in a few of those clips. For those wondering why, she used to have a chest hitting tic and wore protective gloves as a result.
Katy's diagnosis of aspergers syndrome is noteworthy. She explains that her psychiatrist suggested she may have an ASD since tourettes and OCD often overlap. While the comorbidity of OCD and tourettes (along with ADHD) is well known in the medical and healthcare community, the link between these conditions and ASD is unclear and still not well understood. She was advised to read Tony Attwood. She obeyed and claimed everything made sense. During her follow-up appointment she was diagnosed.
It sounds to me like Katy used confirmation bias to convince herself that she does indeed have the syndrome and mentioned specific symptoms to score a diagnosis. It's interesting she doesn't mention any assessments, evaluations or tests used to corroborate the diagnosis. I additionally find it interesting that she describes the
mere possibility of having aspergers as "stressful." Aspergers syndrome isn't particularly serious, and the suggestion had nothing to do with any specific symptoms Katy presented clinically. It was simply based on her history of diagnoses that are sometimes present in people with ASDs and Katy took it super cereal. This definitely displays her tendency to dramatize.
Katy's Diagnosis Story:
Katy's diagnosis has been frequently doubted. Katy is dedicated to speaking up against her skeptics. She wrote a
guestpost for a blog and has also uploaded a video on the subject. The comments are predictably disabled:
Of course her illness grab bag doesn't end there! She also has a variety of chronic pain conditions which include- you guessed it- fibromyalga.
A variety of videos discussing her many chronic pain disorders:
What I find so fascinating is a common theme: an obsession with subjective bodily sensations and/or a tendency to WebMD illnesses and instantly claim the symptoms describe her to a T. She's clearly not thinking rationally about her supposed conditions whatsoever.
Our poor Katy is so chronically ill that she is unable to work:
She is also on benefits and has plenty of tips on how to claim them:
Additionally, Katy takes several medications and considers it appropriate to share each and every one of them publicly on the internet:
Additional social media accounts:
There's clearly some malingering and/or somatoform disorders going on here.
? I can't imagine she makes that much from YT and she openly admits to being unemployed.
