Any medical problem that isn’t immediately obvious or seen by others, even medical practitioners, is referred to as an “Invisible Sickness.”
Without any bruise or rash or other empirically verifiable or measurable symptoms, a patient can appear healthy. With that, they often face judgment and skepticism that they are just making things up, making the disease more difficult to endure. I’ve worked with many clients suffering from invisible illnesses (such as the ones listed below). On top of the physical and mental pain, they’re dealing with, the lack of understanding or compassion from those who don’t see or don’t understand these invisible illnesses does make it harder for them and their loved ones so I thought I’d make a list of common invisible illnesses for easy reference.
What are examples of Invisible Illness?
Rheumatoid arthritis is a chronic, persistent, and crippling autoimmune condition that affects body organs. It causes pain, edema, and inflammatory reactions in and around the joints typically starting in the hands and feet.
Chronic fatigue syndrome is a complex ailment marked by severe exhaustion, fever, and sore muscles that lasts for at least six months and that cannot be adequately explained by an underlying medical condition. Exhaustion intensifies rather than getting better with rest.
Fibromyalgia leads to extensive discomfort across the body, sleep issues, exhaustion, and frequent emotional and mental disturbance as well. Patients with Fibromyalgia can also be more sensitive to pain.
Diabetes is a chronic and metabolic illness where your blood glucose (or blood sugar) becomes too elevated leading to serious damage to organs like the heart, blood vessels, eyes, kidneys, and nerves over time.
Celiac disease affects the small intestine as a chronic immunological and digestive condition. Consuming gluten-containing foods trigger the disease and prevent your body from absorbing all the nutrients it needs. This condition could result in long-lasting digestive issues.
Lupus is a long-term autoimmune disease that causes inflammation and pain in any part of your body. The body systems that fight infections attack your healthy tissues instead. Lupus usually affects joints, internal organs, and the skin.
Sjogren’s syndrome is an immune system illness prevalently causing dry eyes and a dry mouth. The syndrome frequently coexists with other immune system diseases like lupus and rheumatoid arthritis.
Migraines cause recurrent headaches that may even lead to nausea and impaired vision.
Crohn’s disease is an inflammatory disease that affects the bowels marked by scarring of the intestines, leading to severe abdominal pain, diarrhea, and fatigue.
An inflammatory bowel disease marked by severe abdominal pain, diarrhea, scarring of the intestines, and fatigue.
Depression and anxiety – persistent low, depressed, or hopeless mood, whereas the major sign of anxiety is an abundance of worry, uneasiness, and fear.
But certain crucial symptoms are indeed common to these ailments. Some people with depression may experience more irritability than sadness, as anxiety, for instance, frequently entails irritability.
The Need For More Understanding
As mentioned, people with invisible illnesses suffer chronic pain and lingering fatigue. Their ability to exert effort is limited because of their condition. Some days when they would just rather lie down preventing them from living a full life. Invisible illness also involves a mental illness that changes regularly in severity. Some days they are okay and then a downward spiral.
Because a common philosophy in patient care is that “seeing is believing,” individuals with invisible symptoms typically receive insufficient care and attention. Lack of empathy on the part of medical professionals can make patients feel misunderstood and alone. Countless hospital visits and doctors may still not be able to find anything as their labs and other tests can still come out normal.
Individuals with “invisible illness” often feel shame and frustration along with their debilitating physical suffering. It is not unusual that these individuals could feel guilt as they face resentment as the world does not always understand why they need more consideration, especially at work. The same amount of work could still be expected of them because their illness can not be seen.
Social awareness is key to combatting this type of illness and fortunately, public awareness is gradually increasing with September 10 – 16 of each year marked National Invisible Chronic Illness Awareness Week. But the challenges of this type of illness stay the same with some of these diseases still difficult to diagnose.
How Reiki Can Help
Many physicians are still unsure of how to diagnose and treat people with certain invisible illnesses like Fibromyalgia (FM) and Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS) despite recent medication approvals for their treatment. The average time it takes to diagnose these chronic illnesses is four years which is a very long time especially if you have to suffer the physical pain and mental anguish of such diseases.
Reiki, which promotes overall wellness, can do wonders for such conditions. The energy levels of your mind and body are brought back into balance so your battered body and mind feel lighter and more relaxed. And with the more specialized treatment, Intuitive Healing undergoes diagnostic consultation to determine the right energy healing treatment that will target your illness.
Intuitive Healing seeks to address your disease by the layers of emotional blockages down to its roots. Any stored negative emotion due to a bad experience or past traumas, stuck within your body that may have been causing your illness will be released so it can no longer take hold of your physical and mental health. In-person and distance healing sessions are available to all.
What You Can Do
Just because an illness can not be seen, it doesn’t mean they are not there. What we need is to be more sympathetic and understanding of people with invisible illnesses. It takes a lot for these individuals just to live through the day so expressing empathy, giving more consideration and offering a helping hand are ways that make their day a whole lot better and easier.
Share the message too with those you think may be unfamiliar with invisible illnesses so they can become aware too. We never know what’s really going on in someone’s life but a little more mindfulness, compassion, and kindness especially to those dealing with invisible illnesses could never hurt.
