Twitch streamer breaks down after “disgusting” attack over disability
Twitch: Aeyvi / TwitchTwitch streamer Aeyvi has hit back at “disgusting” trolls online, after she was the target of an attack over her disability, which causes stroke-like symptoms, and people saying she’s faking it.
Aeyvi is a popular Elder Scrolls Online streamer, working her way up to secure a partnership with the game’s developer ZeniMax, to help promote the game. She also uses her stream to increase awareness of her disability, dysautonomia.
While it’s not the only condition she suffers from, dysautonomia has left the British streamer with a vastly reduced quality of life, suffering from stroke-like attacks on a weekly basis.
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Her status has made her the target of online trolls, who suggest the streamer is faking her disability. However, one recent attack on Twitter left her in tears, describing the perpetrator as “the most disgusting human being I’ve ever come across in my life.”
Reading out the tweet, which has since been deleted by the user, on February 4, Aeyvi broke down in tears.
“‘Number three, is she disabled or have you paid her to act,” the tweet said. “‘…who has had…but can stream the next day. No one questions this, plus her face is not the face of someone who has had many strokes.
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She continued reading, before cutting the tweet off halfway to straighten the facts. “’Her face is normal. She is paralyzed from the waist down–‘ no I’m not.”
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“This person clearly didn’t read the description of anything,” she added. “Oh my god, this is why you don’t pick up your phone. Why are people so vicious?”
Aeyvi took a break from her game to process what the tweet said, and was “totally thrown” by the out-of-left-field remarks. Sadly, that wasn’t the only message the user had for her, with the comments continuing in a thread.
“‘In the video, she moves her legs without using her hands to move them. I think not. Those who open your eyes can clearly see them as they truly are due to greed. These ESO stream team members who simply seek money and attention’,” she read.
The comments left the streamer feeling “sick” and on the verge of tears, before she lashed out at her attacker, trying to correct the record.
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“I’m not paralyzed, I’ve never told anyone that I’m paralyzed. I have dysautonomia, so this is what causes the stroke-like appearance because the blood and the oxygen gets stuck in the wrong part of the body so it can’t get to my brain, therefore my brain acts as if it’s having a stroke,” she said.
“I can’t believe someone would write that. I don’t spend a year and a half in a wheelchair for fun. I don’t not leave the house for fun. I don’t have to justify every illness that I have to every single doctor until I found the right one after seven years who knew what was wrong with me.
“I know that I’m allowing these people to win by being upset by this, but I find it disgusting that anyone would ever fake an illness because I feel in chronic pain and I’ve had my young life ruined by illness. My first operation was at 14.
“This is why I make the videos, and someone who is that despicable–I’m sorry, I’m trying to not let it get to me but I’m so angry.
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The streamer apologized to her viewers for reading it, although her community comforted her throughout the entire ordeal. However, it doesn’t change the fact that attacks like these are a regular occurrence for Aeyvi.
She mentioned she had received aggressive DMs from random Twitter users in the past few weeks, and said it’s likely the same person on a different account.
While Aeyvi can only report the tweets and move on, she is hoping to raise awareness for her illness, as well as for others with disabilities, about their hardship.
The attacks don’t get any easier to bear over time, but with every stream and every video she hopes to educate someone about her disability, and that’s all anyone could ask for.
