Suffering From an Invisible Illness

You don't look sick. You are just lazy. You are using your illness as an excuse to not live life... Yes I do have a chronic illness. No I am not lazy, I am chronically fatigued, and this is how I have to live my life. On the outside I look like a normal healthy 24 year old girl, but on the inside I am fighting a battle that no one else understands. No I am not hooked up to tubes and wires, laying in a hospital bed with the appearance of death, but that does not mean that I am not as sick as all of the rest. I bet you would not be able to walk for 24 hours in my shoes, especially with the sudden fainting, blood pooling, severe body aches, and physical and mental exhaustion; the memory loss, the brain fog, the dizziness, and constantly feeling naseous. 

My heart rate drops so low and blood pressure rises, everyday is full of surprises; feeling closer and closer to death, but thank God I have alittle more strenght to fight back. It is bad enough that my doctors have no idea about what I am dealing with, now I have to deal with people who assume they know me and think my issues are no big deal; I am tired of defending myself and trying to keep it real; I am tired of standing my ground and fighting for those of us who suffer from an invisible illness, in a world where people are only judged by physical appearances.

People who appear to be healthy looking like me are also dealing with similar invisible disabilities. It is not fair to label us as faking an illness, lying about our symptoms, or making up stories about our daily lives; it is not fair to assume that we are trying to get attention, going through hormonal changes, or suffering from anxiety; it is not fair having to defend ourselves to small minded individuals who are blinded by other people's facts and opinions, instead of researching and taking time out to learn about our situation for themselves.

All you ever do is lay in bed all day. You should not let your illness control your life. Maybe you need to exercise and get out more. If I had an illness I would not let it get in the way of living my life and being happy... Having to constantly lay in bed is not a choice. My illness is debilitating. One of my symptoms is that I am exercise intolerant, meaning that I will cause my symptoms to worsen by adding more stress on my body. If you felt horrible every single day of your life as if you had a flu that just would never go away, would you have any interest in going outside and socializing more? I do not think so.

Stop telling us how to live our lives when you have no idea what it is like to live our life.