Living with an invisible illness means frequent accusations of faking, exaggerating, and laziness. So how can abled people help those with invisible illnesses feel validated? 1. What are you up to doing? People make a lot of assumptions about me. If they know about my illness they assume I’m useless, if they don’t know about…Continue reading 5 things people with invisible illness need to hear
Tag: Invisible Illness
30 things you may not know about my invisible illness
This week is invisible illness awareness week. In honor of that, here is 30 Things About My Invisible Illness You May Not Know. You can read more of them at invisibleillnessweek.com. 1. The illness I live with is: Lyme Disease and Fibromyalgia 2. I was diagnosed with it in the year: 2011 3. But I…Continue reading 30 things you may not know about my invisible illness
10 things I’ve learned through my invisible illness
1. You never know what a person is really going through when they have an invisible illness I am very good at putting on a front. I am the epitome of the “fake it till you make it” principle. On a normal day I might look a little tired, and be a little quiet but…Continue reading 10 things I’ve learned through my invisible illness
5 “helpful” things that don’t really help people with chronic illness
1. Saying things like, “But you don’t look sick”! It’s really nice of you to say that I look good, but I have an invisible illness. You can’t see my pain, but believe me it is there. On a regular day I’m in more pain than most people could ever imagine, but I’m very good at…Continue reading 5 “helpful” things that don’t really help people with chronic illness
The uncomfortable truths about chronic illness
What’s it really like being sick? It’s lonely. There is a barrier between you and most healthy people. Healthy people want healthy friends. They want friends they can regularly rely on. They want friends who’s lives are not regulated by pain, medication, exhaustion, sleep patterns, and doctors appointments. Very few people can see past these…Continue reading The uncomfortable truths about chronic illness
5 Microaggressions seen at the doctor’s office by people in pain
One of my biggest challenges is going to the doctors office. It sounds like I’m exaggerating, but it’s actually difficult to exaggerate how hard it is to go to the doctor when you have a chronic illness or chronic pain. For many people going to the doctors office is unpleasant. No one wants to wait…Continue reading 5 Microaggressions seen at the doctor’s office by people in pain
5 ways to respond when someone doesn’t believe you’re sick
1. Try to educate If it is someone close to you and they are important in your life try to educate them on your disease. They might have no idea about the ins and outs of your illness and once they read up on it they might be more understanding. Find articles about your…Continue reading 5 ways to respond when someone doesn’t believe you’re sick
Society fails the chronically ill
This post is based of a comment I gave in response to some criticism of my popular “Why no one cares about chronic illness, still” post. I am one of the lucky ones. I have some amazing friends and family who have supported me from the very beginning of my health crisis. In some ways their support protected me…Continue reading Society fails the chronically ill
Invisible Illness and suicide
I read this article about an amazing women who committed suicide and it just broke my heart. She was dealing with POTS which is not a disease I know a lot about. I do know that POTS is invisible, can be related to Lyme, is often debilitating, and there isn’t a large body of research…Continue reading Invisible Illness and suicide
When no one cares about your chronic illness because it isn’t cancer
This week my sister and I were discussing why people don’t care about chronic illness and it reminded me of a post I wrote in 2013 called “why nobody cares about chronic illness.” After re-reading it I realized that I’ve learned a lot since I originally wrote that post. I wrote it when I was angry and…Continue reading When no one cares about your chronic illness because it isn’t cancer