"Invisible Illnesses"

The accusations of being lazy or just having poor time management skills are honestly the hardest thing about all of this. It's hugely insulting to have someone constantly tell you you just need to try harder when really you're making far better use of your time than everyone else around you, you just have less of it to manage in the first place. I'm doing so much better still at the end of this quarter, but finals are a week from Wednesday and then I have to go back to the same situation that was stressing me out so much before. I'm already starting to feel slightly worse from the stress of just thinking about it. I wish I could somehow get my team of doctors to all come up to the school and explain to this instructor that my problem can't be magically fixed with yoga and spending hours a day on some stupid time management class online, and they're just going to have to accept the fact that getting things in on time in such a tight schedule is going to continue to be an issue for me, but I've accepted that and am willing to work around it. My pcp doesn't think that I'll medically qualify for any actual disability type program, but he said to talk to my therapist about it because my anxiety issues may qualify me instead. Unfortunately that seems to be my only route I can even take, since this school is so tiny (I think there's maybe 100 students total in all of the programs combined, with maybe 12 or 13 in my program and only 1 or 2 other students in my program at the same level as me) and doesn't really seem to be used to working around chronic illness-type disabilities AT ALL.

My stepdaughter has gastroparesis. She's had to stop eating meat and has real issues with anything high in fibre or protein, whether animal of vegetable based. Fibre and protein take the longest to digest so they cause the most issues, but even so there will be days when all she's had is a few fries and she's up for hours in agony.

It's not a well known condition but it is very debilitating. She's constantly anaemic, takes more supplements than most athletes and has lost loads of weight due to the condition.

Keep in there and the very best of luck.

It's a terrible condition, I wouldn't wish it on anyone. When it's dormant I'm almost okay, but when it flares up I might face months of being completely unable to eat anything solid, and subsisting on nothing but nutrient shakes and soup and yogurt gets pretty miserable pretty quickly. And to top it all off, I've just been diagnosed with another chronic condition, only this one is degenerative and I can't treat it at all. I was recently diagnosed with essential tremors, which are very mild at this point but are already making my life very difficult considering I rely on my hands for everything I do. There are definitely days (especially these last couple quarters since the tremors started) that I just want to give up, and people who refuse to accept that I'm not making my conditions up certainly don't help. It's only my devotion to making a career out of the things I love that is still keeping me going at this point, and the fact that I've made friends with several people in my current design class who have chronic illness issues as well.

I have CRPS and all it's related disorders. I use pacing, meditation and Bowen therapy along side medication to help manage pain. I realised it's not a case of what I can't do, but what I can still do. I use that as my base line and if I can't do new things it doesn't matter. I'm quite restricted in my mobility and have found some unusual ways to get dressed. Each day is different so I'm going to get on with living. As for anyone who passes judgement on me for moving slow or eg. not being able to respond to messages quickly enough they get told politely to grow up and stop being selfish. Hope you are all managing to have some breaks from your discomforts x

I have a few Invisable chronic diseases. But just reading some of these posts, look up Fibromyalgia... I was diagnosed with it 3 yrs ago. It has 60+ symptoms. I have chronic migraines, n lots more... Good luck

I also have an invisible illness. RA and Fibro.
Hang in there. Rest when you can. Remember that you are not alone and you have people that need you to fight like a warrior.