Navigating life’s twists and turns can be tricky as it is, but adding an illness or chronic condition to the mix can make a ‘normal’ life feel impossible. Even short-term illnesses can impact a person’s life for weeks, months, or even years to come
As someone living with hypermobile Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome, Mast Cell Activation Syndrome, migraines, and a long list of other diagnoses, I was sat to hear what others had to say when Reddit user u/Thecardiologist2029 asked this important question:
These are some of the conditions and diseases that are all too often minimized, when in reality, they’re they can make every day a living hell:
1. “IBS and anxiety are a fairly disabling combo as one aggravates the other.”
“Panic poops, all day every day
Solidarity, my IBS-and-anxiety-suffering friend.”
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2. “Celiac disease. It’s more than just “I can’t eat bread.” So many foods (and non-food items!) have gluten. Cross-contamination is huge. And even if someone with the disease doesn’t have physical symptoms, they’re still plagued by gluten interfering with the absorption of other necessary nutrients.”
“Before mine was diagnosed, the inflammation started causing serious damage to my brain/nervous system
Like, bordering on MS symptoms combined with PTSD, but bread-induced. If I had never found out what it was, I could’ve ended up with gluten encephalopathy or early-onset dementia as a result
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Got gluten-free and I’m genuinely an entirely new person. It’s wild.”
3. “Chronic intractable migraines. Think about the worst headache of your life and imagine having it all day, every day. Usually comes with a free side of vomiting, nausea, weight loss, numbness, etc. So many are on disability from this, and most people say, ‘just take a Tylenol.'”
“Also vestibular migraine and vertigo. It presents differently than regular migraine, and neurologists call vertigo ‘benign,’ but it’s really debilitating. I had BPPV, and even after correcting it, I had chronic migraines, facial pain, and dizziness for eight months after.”
4. “Endometriosis.”
“This. It has all the major hallmarks of cancer without actually being cancer. It can spread to the lungs and cause them to collapse. It’s even been found in brain and eye tissue. It’s a horror show
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And it’s dismissed constantly as ‘just’ painful periods.”
5. “Alcoholism. ‘Why can’t they just quit?’ It’s not that easy.”
“Also, alcohol is fucking everywhere
Every restaurant has a dedicated menu for it. Every grocery store
Every sports event
Every meet-up with friends, there’s an opportunity. Every celebration, every tribute, every commiseration…. It’s at the gas station. It’s in your hotel room…”
6. “Anything involving the digestive system. You need to constantly worry about access to a washroom, what/when/how much you eat. Add in some societal stigma. Similar for menstrual conditions or incontinence. Having your life changed over what exits your body just sucks. It’s such a small thing but has impacts disproportionate to the physical severity. Like your entire life is tied to being within the radius of a public washroom of adequate quality.”
7. “Major depression.”
“Nothing quite like losing interest in literally everything you used to love and having people tell you to just think positive.”
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8. “Restless Leg Syndrome was the worst part of my pregnancies, and that’s with me also having pretty bad and sporadic morning sickness. I was extremely grateful that it mostly went away after my kids were born. My grandmother just went through a pretty strenuous cancer treatment regimen, and the only issue she complained about was RLS, and that lady never has a negative comment or a complaint.”
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“I had this shit as a side effect of a medication once. Holy shit, the name for this does not do enough to explain how uncomfortable this is
Ironically, the medication that caused it was one for insomnia. And guess what I’m not doing when I’m resisting the urge to kickbox demons in bed and go for a run all night?”
9. “Chronic pain.”
“I legitimately cannot remember what it is like to not be in pain. But I remember who I was before it. All the things I was able to do. I no longer recognize myself.”
10. “Carpal Tunnel Syndrome. Always thought it was just an office worker’s wrist twinge. Turns out, at its worst, it’s like stuffing your hand into hot coals. Leaves you unable to grip even a steering wheel and also wrecks your sleep. And everyone on the jobsite makes fun of your wrist braces.”
11. “Sleep apnea.”
“My husband was diagnosed with sleep apnea back in 2021. Before we knew, he would periodically wake up in the middle of the night because he couldn’t breathe. His getting a CPAP is a blessing to both his breathing and my ears. Plus he looks like he’s ready to blast off in a fighter jet, LOL.”
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12. “Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. ‘Everyone gets tired sometimes.’ Okay, Greg, come back to me when you spend days at a time bedbound because your muscles feel like jelly, and when you try to move, it feels like someone’s tied heavy weights to all your limbs, so every step feels heavy. We are not the same.”
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13. “Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome. Doctors always treat me like I have a few aches and pains because my joints are a bit bendy, when in reality I’ve had organ perforations, sepsis, surgeries every two months for 7.5 years, and I nearly die on a regular basis. It sucks!”
“Genuinely. It’s not just ‘a joint disorder.’ It’s put me in heart, respiratory, and gastrointestinal failure in my 30s.”
14. “CPTSD. People think it’s just a matter of mind and ‘getting over it,’ whereas it’s the nervous system still stuck in a fight-or-flight-freeze mode and impacting the rest of the body and mind.”
15. “GERD. It’s not just heartburn. I have to sleep on a steep incline so that I don’t wake up choking on stomach acid. Omeprazole helps, but the GI doctor is expensive, so I haven’t refilled in a while. I get chest pain a lot, to the point where I once checked myself into the ER because I was so sure I was having a heart attack. If I ever do have one, I’ll probably die from writing it off as reflux. I’ve gotten aspiration pneumonia twice. There’s scar tissue in my esophagus that was discovered once I could finally afford the endoscopy, which puts me at a high risk for esophageal cancer now.”
16.
17. “Constipation. If it’s not treated properly and left long enough, it can cause the bowel to perforate, and you can die of peritonitis.”
18. “Back injuries. A lot of people dismiss them as no big deal because they’ve pulled a back muscle before and it healed quickly, but there’s really no relief if you’ve injured/cracked vertebrae. It hurts to stand, sit, and lie down. No medicine takes away the pain. Surgery might help, but could make it worse.”
19. “Diabetes. So many jokes, not enough sympathy.”
“You basically have another lifelong full-time job functioning as your pancreas. And for a lot of folks, it’s hereditary and not tied to your diet/exercise habits. Plus, in the US, you also have to deal with insurance and the cost of everything. It’s infuriating; it’s just a misunderstood punchline to too many people.”
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20. “I have POTS0, and if I think too much about how I’d like to have as much energy as a normal person, I start crying. Not super-human or even athletic energy, mind you. Just the ability to do as much as an average person.”
21. “C. Diff. I had it 1.5 years ago, and it fucked me up forever, more than likely. It really is no joke, and I do not wish it upon anyone!”
22. “RCP-D. The inability to burp.”
“I only recently heard about this. Sounds horrible. Apparently targeted Botox treatment does show some promise, with most patients continuing to burp normally after it wears off, but I doubt it’s accessible to everyone who suffers from R-CPD, unfortunately.”
23. “Hidradenitis Suppurativa.”
“When I started working as an emergency nurse, I was surprised by how many people are affected by this condition. Like, debilitated in some cases. And many of them don’t even realize it’s a diagnosis; they just live in pain and shame because no one has referred them to a dermatologist and helped them get treatment for it.”
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24. “Autism. People think it’s just being socially awkward, but I can’t regulate myself; every sensation bothers me at all times; I can’t make friends.”
The human body is a beautifully complex system with so many ways to make day-to-day life as inconvenient as possible. My heart goes out to everyone living with an illness or condition. Please know the comment section is a safe place to share about your own experiences with diseases or chronic conditions, and I’d love to hear if there are any other illnesses that should’ve made this list in the comments or anonymous form
Note: Responses have been edited for length/clarity
The National Alliance on Mental Illness helpline is 1-800-950-6264 (NAMI) and provides information and referral services;GoodTherapy.orgis an association of mental health professionals from more than 25 countries who support efforts to reduce harm in therapy
If you or someone you know is struggling with substance abuse, you can call SAMHSA’s National Helpline at 1-800-662-HELP (4357) and find more re
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