I was a normal 20-year-old. I was working in a full-time job. Had just been promoted. I was active and full of life. I enjoyed swimming, the gym, exercise classes, walking, and going out with my friends. Suddenly, I could not do it anymore. I’d return from work exhausted and crash out on the sofa and that was it for the evening. It took months before I would go to my doctor.<\/p>\n
After seeing three doctors, a neurologist, and a psychiatrist, and having many tests, I was diagnosed with ME\/CFS. It was the beginning of what felt like the end of my life. I tried to carry on with work. I changed my hours and working patterns. It didn\u2019t work and I had to admit defeat. I didn’t know that 13 years later I would still be unable to work. This illness has ruined what should have been the best years of my life. My life plans have had to change. I have no career. I cannot have as many children as I would like due to sheer exhaustion. Money has to be carefully budgeted and I live in fear of my disability benefits being taken away.<\/p>\n
I cannot work. I want to wake up feeling refreshed and ready for a busy day, not exhausted and achy like I haven’t been to bed yet. It is shocking that an illness this devastating and life changing is ignored and dismissed by many. Research is essential. This is not what I envisioned for my life. I want to be normal. I want to feel like any other healthy 30-something person, not like an old woman trapped in a young person\u2019s body. I want to go out or do an activity at home without having to calculate what it is going to cost me in pain and lack of energy.<\/p>\n
My life has been dominated and ruined by a disease that seems to spark little interest from the government, researchers, and doctors alike. I cannot comprehend this. It is insulting to be told that it is a psychological illness. If I could have ploughed through it and thought myself better, I wouldn’t have become ill in the first place. I tried that, it made me worse. I want to swim without being in pain and not have to go to bed after because it is so exhausting. I want to jump up and join in with my children when they go for a walk with their dad, not say “sorry, mummy’s too tired” and wave them off as they go. I want to cook healthy meals, not use frozen food or rely on my husband to prepare it. I want my normal, healthy life back!<\/p>\n
I could never have foreseen how my life would be. I try not to think about what I have lost as it would leave me in danger of depression again. I am sick of fighting. I am just sick and people don’t seem to care!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Humans of ME\/CFS I was a normal 20-year-old. I was working in a full-time job. Had just been promoted. I was active and full of life. I enjoyed swimming, the gym, exercise classes, walking, and going out with my friends. Suddenly, I could not do it anymore. I’d return from work exhausted and crash out […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":695,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/humansofchronicillness.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/sonia_p.png","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/humansofchronicillness.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/697"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/humansofchronicillness.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/humansofchronicillness.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/humansofchronicillness.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/humansofchronicillness.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=697"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/humansofchronicillness.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/697\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/humansofchronicillness.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/695"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/humansofchronicillness.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=697"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/humansofchronicillness.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=697"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/humansofchronicillness.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=697"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}