Invisible Illness Awareness Week Count Down

7 Ways to Support a Loved One With Invisible Illness

We are excitedly anticipating the arrival of Invisible Illness Awareness Week, and to celebrate we are counting down the top seven things you can do to support a loved one with invisible illness.  Here it is, the one you’ve been waiting for, the much-anticipated #1…

Unlike other illnesses, where people can easily notice and understand the health battle the sufferer is fighting, invisible illnesses offer little to no outward sign of the struggle going on inside.  Invisible illness means that the majority of information you can gather is going to come from what they say, and not what you can see.  Since people who fight invisible illnesses are so reliant on what they say to inform their loved ones of their progress and their need for support, it comes as an enormous blow when people choose not to believe them.  When you choose not to believe what an invisibly ill person says about their #invisiblefight you isolate them from the support and comfort they need.  Not believing what an invisibly ill person says about their illness essentially means that you are insinuating that they are faking, crazy, or needy.  None of those insinuations are positive or helpful.  No one fighting an invisible illness should ever have to feel the need to prove their illness, their sanity, or their struggles to people in their support group.  Believing your loved one with an invisible illness is perhaps, the most important and supportive thing you can do for them.  It offers them an emotional validation to their physical struggle that they need in order to cope.  No matter how little evidence you can gather from your physical appraisal of an invisibly ill person, believe what they tell you about how they are feeling, struggling, or needing help.  Don’t forget it is called invisible illness for a reason.  Show your support to your loved one fighting an invisible illness today by believing them.