invisible-illness

It dawns on me that maybe I'm just terrifically lazy; that I might be appropriating other people__ invisible sicknesses and disorders and scribbling them on the clipboard at the end of my bed to fool the nurses; so I can indulge in rest cures all day, every day. That I__ even fooling myself.

It is a perfectly normal side-effect for someone to have depression because he cannot move or function in his job. That is all that it is: a side-effect. Those with disabilities and debilitating illnesses probably have more to get depressed about than others.

Mental illness People assume you aren__ sick unless they see the sickness on your skin like scars forming a map of all the ways you__e hurting. My heart is a prison of Have you tried?s Have you tried exercising? Have you tried eating better? Have you tried not being sad, not being sick? Have you tried being more like me? Have you tried shutting up? Yes, I have tried. Yes, I am still trying, and yes, I am still sick. Sometimes monsters are invisible, and sometimes demons attack you from the inside. Just because you cannot see the claws and the teeth does not mean they aren__ ripping through me. Pain does not need to be seen to be felt. Telling me there is no problem won__ solve the problem. This is not how miracles are born. This is not how sickness works.

I often wished that more people understood the invisible side of things. Even the people who seemed to understand, didn't really.

People who don't see you every day have a hard time understanding how on some days--good days--you can run three miles, but can barely walk across the parking lot on other days,' [my mom] said quietly.

Dancing with a spinal cord injury is a challenge like no other, but I aspired to prove to myself that I could still be phenomenal dancer even with an SCI

I had learned quickly that life doesn't always go the way I want it to, and that's okay. I still plod on.

The weekend was a much-needed breath of fresh air; Monday always seemed to not only take that breath right back, but add a few extra pounds to my shoulders as well.

The video was still playing, although I didn't know why. It seemed as if the able-bodied dancers were mocking me.

Schizo. It didn't matter how many times Dr. Gill compared it to a disease or physical disability, it wasn't the same thing. It just wasn't. I had schizophrenia. If I saw two guys on the sidewalk, one in a wheelchair and one talking talking to himself, which would I rush to open a door for, and which would I cross the road to avoid?

It never occurred to me that somehow women did know about it. It just never occurred to me. Yes I am wearing sneakers too. You are in a suit, I am comfortable. So when she explained to me that this was the first event really of its kind, it floored me. So I called my daughter who is in her 30s now and I said __o you know what endometriosis is?_ She said, __hat? Have to pack the pack the busters.__ said __o man, you have never heard of it?_ No she said. I do not know what it is, and it occurred to me that my 30-year-old daughter who I told about endometriosis and it didn__ stick. If she didn__ know, and she is one of the hippest people I know, and her daughter doesn__ know, she has 19-year-old and she is a 13-year-old. The boy, we don__ care much about if he knows about it so much. There is other stuff for him to learn. Like how to roll a condom, things like that.You know, and it occurred to me that if they didn__ know that there were hundreds of thousands girls out there that don__ know. It is not because their mothers don__ want to tell them, because it__ not religion, it__ pure ignorance. We don__ know, we don__ have the information, we have it now, and so now is why this very first gathering is happening. Now is why we__e all sitting here looking really fabulous as you are...[Whoopi Goldberg on endometriosis awareness from the 2009 Blossom Ball]

We have a duty tonight. Everybody, and guys this for you as well because I know you know women. You have a duty tonight. You only have to tell one other person what you heard. Just tell them what you heard, or ask them have you ever heard of this? If the answer is no, share what you learn tonight.That__ all. You don__ have to do anything else. You just have to tell somebody else. You have to take whatever stigma people think that is there. You have to take it. It__ not male or female. It has nothing to do with that. It has to do with, here__ a disease you don__ know about and you need to know about it. It__ that simple. It__ not rocket science.[Whoopi Goldberg on endometriosis awareness from the 2009 Blossom Ball]