Often when a chronic illness begins to rear its ugly head family, friends and even medical professionals brush off symptoms as mere stress & anxiety. Many young people have had serious medical conditions over-looked, pushed aside with no further testing or exploring potential causes due to this all too common fallback perspective. Yes it is true stress and anxiety can and certainly do manifest as legitimate health concerns and have negative implications on our health, especially when chronic, but no person should complain of severe headaches, frequent heart palpations, repetitive bouts of dizziness, intense pain, neuropathy etc…. and NOT be prescribed testing to explore potential physical causes.
I experienced this first hand while struggling and suffering, pushing and fighting for a diagnosis which took a painfully long 5 years. I know what it is like to have your symptoms minimized by the statement “oh your probably just stressed”, and the additional emotional pain, frustration and despair this can cause when you know that there is something physically WRONG!
If you are a person living with chronic illness and you are on the receiving
end of this completely in-validating statement you just retort… NOPE stress and anxiety does not cause my chronic illness, but the stress and anxiety that happens to people BECAUSE they are forced to figure out how to continue getting through life DESPITE a chronic illness… is certainly HUGE!
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