Surprising reasons invisible disabilities are so hard #2 and #1
By: Rachel
#2 Invisible disabilities aren’t always black and white
This reason is a little hard to explain, and it’s not true in every case of course. One example is feeling tired. Now I could get tired because I have depression. Or I could be tired because I have low iron (which I do). Or I could be tired because I have cats that crawl all over me in the morning. Which is it? A combination? When does it require a doctor appointment or a med change?
#1 Invisible disabilities can take a long time to diagnose
Using the example above, it makes sense that some invisible disabilities take a long time to diagnose and therefore treat. This is why I tell everyone I know to go to a therapist!! You might not even feel like something is wrong, but there could be! Or maybe not. But it won’t hurt, just like having a physical at the doctor’s office every year is a good habit.
Now that I know I have Borderline, I can look back and see symptoms years before I was diagnosed, which wasn’t until I was in grad school. I can also say the same thing about depression, which I was diagnosed with in college. I think to myself, “What if I could have found out sooner and gotten more help before some ineffective habits formed?”
I’ll never know if it could have made a difference, but maybe if we make invisible disabilities something that’s okay too take about, more people will be alerted to the symptoms so that more people will get diagnosed sooner!