After graduating college, Linda found success working as an extra in Hollywood, achieving the glamorous life she always wanted. But her dreams died when she came down with Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome, a rare disorder characterized by joint dislocations. Linda started taking fentanyl, a painkiller 100 times stronger than morphine. As her painkiller use escalated, she claimed that different sources were causing her pain, including electricity, energy, colors, and even specific people. Despite Linda's wild claims, her mother clings to the belief that Linda's pain is real and she must do everything to help her, including depleting the family's savings and sending her son to be Linda's caretaker.

Missed the episode? Watch it here.

dont know where these ideas r comin from never told anyone not to have surgery. but Surgery with EDS is risky. that is common knowledge. was trying to repost something 

Linda's motto: "I don't listen, but you should listen to me" :)

I can't be sure what happened, but based on Linda' history, I lean toward the devil I don't know (fregs).

It's certainly against the law for a non-professional to tell a patient to disregard a doctor's instructions about how to use a medication he or she prescribed. It's probably "common knowledge" that surgery for anyone (EDS or not) is dangerous. The problem is that it's not such common knowledge that virtually all prescription meds can be dangerous, especially opiates, even if not grotesquely misused. (Even some non-prescription meds can be dangerous.) Whitney Houston might have died from slight carelessness. Many people drink and use pain meds (or, for example, use pain meds and sleeping meds or, more scary, cold meds with sedating ingredients) - George Clooney has suggested he does. Dr. Drew said something eye-opening, which is that one substance can make a person a bit forgetful and not realize how much he or she is taking of the other. In a way, Linda's episode is misleading, in that that type of prescription misuse probably is far less common than mixing classes of substances. Linda likely doesn't realize how dangerous the other kind is or that many people are fundamentally disorganized or impulsive and can't be trusted to correctly use particularly dangerous drugs. Or that some people might be reckless in how they store meds (e.g., where kids can access for them). Regardless of that, at this point it's crazy that she still acts as though long-term pain meds are low-risk and particularly helpful for EDS. Some EDS-related problems are easier to treat surgically sooner rather than later, making covering them up with pain meds a bad choice.

Just an update on my health.
And it's yucky. I know I started that sentence with a conjunction, but right now I'm not the Annoying Grammar Lady. I'm just Mere. And I'm in pain. All the time. So I'm going to start sentences with conjunctions and maybe even stick some fragments in here. Deal, people.

A few months ago, I befriended someone who frequented the same blog as I did. In case you're interested, it's called imbringingbloggingback.com, and it's hysterically funny. The guy who writes it recaps reality shows and is a wonderful writer. Anyway, I met Linda Li in the comments section, and we began talking to each other. Then we befriended each other on Facebook.

If you don't know who Linda is, she was on an episode of the television show Intervention. The show made her look really bad, and I was glad I hadn't seen her episode before I met her because I think it would have colored my opinion of her. At first, we just discussed trivial things, like Grey's Anatomy (we're both huge fans) and ice cream (also, both huge fans), but I began to see her posting about her EDS support group. I had no idea at the time what EDS was. I knew Linda was in pain much of the time because I saw her posts to her group, which was an open group at the time. If a group is open, it means everyone can see the interaction going on within it. She was saying how much her fingers hurt all the time.

At some point, I grew curious and asked her what EDS was. She told me EDS stood for Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome, and it was a connective tissue disorder that caused severe pain. It also caused dislocations of joints and subluxations of joints. I'd had tons of subluxations my whole life, but I'm including a definition in case you don't know what it is.

Do your fellow cast members know you think of them as "druggies"? But who else would hang out with Linda?

It's not funny. It's appalling. Over two years later, goofing off most of the day and (despite being reasonably able-bodied) the only "productive" action (EDS Facebook group) probably is endangering some people (by the way, bad role modeling on diet, as it affects pain). What a waste of talent and opportunities to get things right.

I hope A&E has learned from this and isn't letting more attention-seekers on shows like Intervention. I wish Bay Recovery would learn from this and hire better psychologists, use mentoring systems, set up employment with unrelated businesses, etc., so that patients are kept on the right track. Although I cynically say that it might be more profitable in the long run to maintain the revolving door.

My Boyfriend asks me who is it that we are going double dating with. I said believe it or not a girl I know from Intervention. LOL If you want you can go online and watch her episode b4 we go out. Is that the freakiest thing or what?

First of all, I already warned about posting people's full names and I don't know why the moderators haven't deleted the post. Now I have to deflect from that and as usual spend energy to fight misleading information.

Let's assume that the story is accurate. There are ignorant, rigid, callous medical professionals out there. Then she should move on to places where knowledge is higher and pain medication is offered. Some pain medication. Not an endless supply, which Linda seems to advocate. Because the original doctor has the right basic idea - reduce dislocations. No amount of medication is going to make a big difference in pain level after a significant dislocation. And the more chances of dependency, medication-induced damage, and overuse while injuries worsen perhaps beyond repair.

Something needs to be done about Linda playing pied pier to the EDS community. I have some ideas, but nothing I can do alone.

Ok so I'm really curious. Linda, how do you manage to type, with fingers that dislocate so easily, while on a computer that worsens your pain? Wouldn't you be screaming bloody murder as you did on your episode when the wrong people came near you? And you aren't typing short replies....