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A young woman explains what it’s like to be in the gray area of chronic illness.

Transcription:

“I’m trapped between two worlds, neither of which quite fit me.”

When You’re ‘Too Functional’ to be Chronically Ill, but Too Sick to be Healthy

“One day I might work an 8-hour shift, go to the gym, run errands, meet friends for dinner, clean the house and feel completely accomplished and ready for tomorrow.”

“And then tomorrow will come and I’ll be trapped in a full day of vertigo, dizziness, full body pain and disorienting fatigue that leaves me completely disconnected from the world I lived in the day before.”

“Chronic illness doesn’t have to be constant to be valid.”

“It doesn’t have to be as bad to be really bad.”
“It has taken a while for me to come to the realization that this is how I identify, feeling too much like a functioning adult to identify as chronically ill, but feeling too chronically ill to identify as healthy.”

“Strength and empathy that comes from living with chronic illness can empower us to be amazing human beings.”

“So to all those out there who feel the same sense of too functional to be sick, but too sick to be healthy, I hope you know you’re not alone out there.”

Originally published: March 30, 2017
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