invisible illnesses
Two updates in three days? That almost counts as regular updates!
I'm writing this partly because of some things my last post made me think about, and partly because of a secret I saw on PostSecret this morning. Now, I don't have RLS, and I don't know what it feels like...but take out RLS and substitute in CFS, and there you have most people's reaction to me when I tell them what I have. I am fairly sure there are only six people offline, excluding doctors, who actually believe me. Six people! That means no family members, two people from school and one person from university. Everyone else I've told has either disregarded it, or has essentially accused me of lying. Some people actually take my being ill personally, as if it's an insult to them when I'm ill and have done something they haven't. It wasn't as if I was going around telling people about it when it wasn't relevant and they had no reason to care, either, it was in an attempt to explain why I couldn't do things - not didn't want to, physically couldn't. When I told my physiotherapist how my family didn't believe me, he asked why people would think I would lie about this; what did I have to gain from being unable to do things? I couldn't think of a single reason, and I still can't.
Hell, I don't even know how many of you reading this believe me.
People must know that just because someone looks fine doesn't mean they are - there are so many hundreds of illnesses with barely any visible symptoms. Most people know someone who's depressed, for example, or who has cancer, or who has any one of a myriad of conditions where it just isn't apparent to the casual observer how ill they are. These illnesses can even kill people and yet they don't show any obvious outward symptoms. But it seems that there are different levels of social acceptance of these illnesses - for example, more people refuse to believe in depression than would tell a cancer patient or someone with AIDS that they weren't ill.
I don't mean to always update about negative things...but I just couldn't bear to see everyone on PostSecret chiming in saying "I think RLS is bullshit, too!". It's so hurtful to see people dismiss things simply because they can't see them and don't know what they're like. Sometimes you really do have to believe someone when they're telling you what's wrong with them, despite how it may look. When a person's coping with a chronic illness anyway (the irony, of course, of invisible illnesses is that they usually last for much longer than things with swelling and boils and a fever), the last thing they need is to know that there's no-one around who will even believe them, let alone offer help.
I'm writing this partly because of some things my last post made me think about, and partly because of a secret I saw on PostSecret this morning. Now, I don't have RLS, and I don't know what it feels like...but take out RLS and substitute in CFS, and there you have most people's reaction to me when I tell them what I have. I am fairly sure there are only six people offline, excluding doctors, who actually believe me. Six people! That means no family members, two people from school and one person from university. Everyone else I've told has either disregarded it, or has essentially accused me of lying. Some people actually take my being ill personally, as if it's an insult to them when I'm ill and have done something they haven't. It wasn't as if I was going around telling people about it when it wasn't relevant and they had no reason to care, either, it was in an attempt to explain why I couldn't do things - not didn't want to, physically couldn't. When I told my physiotherapist how my family didn't believe me, he asked why people would think I would lie about this; what did I have to gain from being unable to do things? I couldn't think of a single reason, and I still can't.
Hell, I don't even know how many of you reading this believe me.
People must know that just because someone looks fine doesn't mean they are - there are so many hundreds of illnesses with barely any visible symptoms. Most people know someone who's depressed, for example, or who has cancer, or who has any one of a myriad of conditions where it just isn't apparent to the casual observer how ill they are. These illnesses can even kill people and yet they don't show any obvious outward symptoms. But it seems that there are different levels of social acceptance of these illnesses - for example, more people refuse to believe in depression than would tell a cancer patient or someone with AIDS that they weren't ill.
I don't mean to always update about negative things...but I just couldn't bear to see everyone on PostSecret chiming in saying "I think RLS is bullshit, too!". It's so hurtful to see people dismiss things simply because they can't see them and don't know what they're like. Sometimes you really do have to believe someone when they're telling you what's wrong with them, despite how it may look. When a person's coping with a chronic illness anyway (the irony, of course, of invisible illnesses is that they usually last for much longer than things with swelling and boils and a fever), the last thing they need is to know that there's no-one around who will even believe them, let alone offer help.