Friendly reminder that:
Young people can have arthritis too.
There are hundreds of life long conditions and diseases out there that are typically diagnosed between 12 and 30.
There is a vast difference between being tired and having chronic fatigue.
Just because you can’t tell that someone is unwell from looking at them, doesn’t mean that you should assume that they are ok.
Many chronic illnesses are life long, and incurable. Many of them are potentially fatal.
If you have a disease like Lupus, on good days you still feel like you have a bad flu, 24/7.
Many of the medications used to treat chronic conditions have side effects that can really affect someone’s self esteem - like extreme weight gain, skin changes and hair loss.
Most chronic illnesses have very little awareness - its unlikely that you’ve heard of Sjogren’s Syndrome, Scleroderma, Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome or Fibromyalgia.
However these diseases can cause symptoms as varied as joint pain, fatigue, constant nausea, kidney failure, pneumonia, photo sensitivity, full body rashes, paralysis, strokes etc.
So please remember that invisible illnesses exist too :)
