58 pages in whoa hello!
I'm going to repost something from gamefaqs, if you care for the rest of the posts they're over that way under "disability faq". And you'll have to forgive me -- fifty-eight pages is a lot to scour through, so I'm just skimming.
It's been hinted at that Misha has some inner ear trauma - she states that she gets dizzy when she goes up / down stairs, she has some issues with balance, vertigo and volume control, her hearing doesn't seem to affect her day to day life but she did come to yamaku to learn sign language and she plans on teaching it.
That sounds vaguely like sequelae of Meniere's disease, although there's a fairly wide differential for problems with balance and hearing, ranging from ear problems to nerve sheath tumors to brainstem issues.
The only problem I have with this is that I'd expect Misha to be more sensitive to sounds and thus speak more softly, not more loudly.
I'm nevertheless impressed that the writers took the time to consider reasons for Misha to speak as loudly as she does. But IMO, there doesn't need to be a reason - sometimes personality is just personality, not pathology.
I note that someone else has noted Meniere's already, to which I will tip my hat.
Meniere's is extremely rare in children, though. I'd consider vestibular migraine as a distinct and more likely possibility in an 18yo female - note that "migraine" doesn't necessarily mean that she'd complain of headaches, she may simply have the vestibular symptoms (dizziness etc).
Also,
she doesn't have Asperger's. She doesn't even
possibly might have Asperger's, she simply doesn't. Diagnosis of Asperger's requires an inability to function in a social environment. It's pretty clear within the first few minutes from Misha's interactions with Shizune and Hisao that
she does not have anything resembling major social dysfunction. She does, however, have some obnoxious histrionic personality traits.
While I'm at it let me address a few other suggestions
Watch it be something out of left field like MS. It just hasn't shown itself yet.
Multiple sclerosis is what we would call a 'zebra diagnosis' here - "when one hears hooves on the prairie, one expects horses, not zebras". An inflammatory MS plaque in the lower midbrain/pontine region of the brainstem could cause transient symptoms but it borders on ridiculous (not impossible, but more-likely-to-win-the-lottery rarity) to think that this would be the presenting sign of MS. Moreover, if the authors were writing about a character with MS, we'd *know* she had MS - there would be a relapse or two written into the script at a minimum. Finally, MS is quite rare in the pediatric population; what I'd expect in the same class of diseases would be an inherited leukodystrophy or disseminated encephalomyelitis, which wouldn't present like Misha does.
Brain tumor, anyone?
Not a terrible suggestion. Low grade pediatric tumors have a tendency to be subtentorial (below the major chunks of brain, by the brainstem and cerebellum), which place them within striking distance of the vestibulocochlear nerve -- the most likely one would be an acoutic neuroma (also called a 'vestibular schwannoma') - this is not entirely out of the range of possibility. However, I doubt a vestibular schwannoma, which is benign aside from sheer mass effect when it enlarges, would send Misha to a school for the disabled. Meanwhile, back to the other types of tumors -- the brainstem is an incredibly tiny place, and an enlarging tumor would cause other cranial neuropathies and brainstem signs, for example, complete cessation of respiratory drive followed promptly by death.
Incidentally, bilateral acoustic neuromas are almost pathognomonic for neurofibromatosis type 2, which I also see mentioned - but I don't see anything else to lead credence to NF2. Again if she had it, I'm pretty sure we'd know.
There's also the posibility that it can be Bipolar Disorder, taking in mind that no depresive episode has been show yet
Mania is probably enough to diagnose bipolar type 1 by itself, but I doubt Misha is simply bipolar all the time; this seems to be more
personality than
psychiatric disorder.
Just saw this on 4chan. Someone suggested thalassemia.
Thalassemia wouldn't be a disability unless she has thalassemia major, and if that were the case you'd be hearing something about chelation injection therapy at the bare minimum. And she'd probably be a lot less energetic -- much more anemic (in all senses of the word).
Osteogenesis imperfecta
I don't even know where this one came from
dyspraxia
No, just no. Not disabled enough, functions too highly, not a believable diagnosis
...Completely healthy student
Her disablillity is that she lusts for a female fuck buddy.
Finally, this (
normal healthy 18-year-old with pink hair) is the most likely and most reasonable diagnosis until evidence of a more significant pathology rears its ugly head.
