You know what? Even if my disability is quite in our face having a heavy-duty chair and all I get people, especially in the medical field, thinking I’m faking pain and symptoms. A good example is when I was diagnosed with nerve damage in my hands. Initially, tests showed nothing wrong, so doctors believed I was just lazy and didn’t want to hand write in school. Luckily, my mum pushed for more testing, and they found out that the nerves in my hands are in knots.
The reason why I brought up that example is to show that if they could see my disability, I still wasn’t believed. Let alone if I had an invisible disability but first, what is an invisible disability? A condition that can’t see with the naked eye, like dyslexia and mental illnesses like anxiety.
Common Invisible Disabilities are:
- Chronic Pain
- Mental Illness
- Fibromyalgia
- Chronic Fatigue Syndrome
- Traumatic Brain Injury
- Crohn’s Disease
- Diabetes
- Multiple Sclerosis
- Lyme Disease
- Post Traumatic Stress Disorder
Of course, there are many more, but these are the ten most common, according to Benefits.com.
A list of Celebrities that have an Invisible Disability:
- Selena Gomez. Lupus.
- Nick Jonas. Type 1 Diabetes.
- Emilia Clarke. Brain Aneurysm.
- Bella Hadid. Chronic Lyme Disease.
- Jessie J. Wolf-Parkinson-White-Syndrome.
- Morgan Freeman. Fibromyalgia.
- Selma Blair. Multiple Sclerosis.
- Wendy Williams. Graves’ Disease.
Working in the disability sector, I hear co-workers if this or that person genuinely has a disability. My typical answer is you can’t assume anything as long as you haven’t seen their medical history. Being disabled myself, I know how judgment the world, so, please be careful what you say and write.
Happy Disability Pride!
Alex
Mybookworld24 
I have nerve damage in my leg because of a trapped nerve and its not easy so sending you hugs 🤗
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Back to you Hon 🙂
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These days my disability is more obvious. I bounce between a mobility scooter and a 4 wheel walker. It was strange the other day when I asked someone near the disabled toilets whether they were waiting. They looked at my 4 wheel walker and said “there is an ambulant toilet in the main toilets down the escalator”. I felt invisible in a new way. Firstly I can’t go on the escalator, then I an’t walk that far and finally my carer is a male so he wouldn’t be able to assist me to navigate the space which is in the female toilets. The person I was speaking with was in a wheel chair. I went away feeling like I had done the wrong thing.
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Oh Gosh, I’m sorry
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Thanks for your post though. Has been on my mind since it happened on Friday. Sorry you had to go through stuff when you were growing up. My stuff went south in my early 40’s. That would be tough when you are a kid.
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Pain has no age
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Having a mental disability myself I know how hard it is to be taken serious. If you have a broken leg people get it, if your mind is broken they roll their eyes and think your just acting.
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I said it in my blog before I dealt with mental health issuses for a long time
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Having epilepsy is an invisible disability until it isn’t and then everyone freaks out. It’s such a fun time (all the sarcasm).
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