This Year, I Vow to Take Off the Mask
Everyone has problems, so why do always we pretend that we don’t?
I’ve lived with chronic pain for years. In my early 30s I was diagnosed with arthritis, first in my hands with other areas following soon after. I dealt with feeling older before my time by keeping it to myself and pretending it wasn’t happening. I put on my brave face — my mask.
Add in the denial of my other chronic illnesses such as my anxiety and panic disorder, and I was putting on that damn mask daily to hide who I really was.
Eventually, my pain started getting worse until I realized that it might not simply be arthritis. In 2014, I was officially diagnosed with Fibromyalgia.
I finally had a reason to blame for the lack of energy that I had. I wasn’t just lazy. I could explain the pain and stiffness that I felt in my body. It wasn’t that my arthritis was spreading.
It also meant that I had just inherited a life-long, chronic illness that has no cure or standard treatment that is a “cure all” for every patient. There is still a slice of the…
