May is the month of Rheumatic Disease Awareness
If you live with rheumatic disease, arthritis or autoimmune conditions, it is probably an invisible illness.
I understand how frustrating it can be to "not look sick" but to wage a secret battle everyday.
Managing flare, fatigue, pain, joint stiffness, anxiety, depression, attending medical appointments (and all the rest!) takes its toll. It can be so frustrating to have fluctuating symptoms that friends, family or employers cannot understand.
As medical professionals, sometimes we may also fail to recognise your silent symptoms too. This is why advocacy matters.
Every day we raise awareness of rheumatic disease but May is a particularly important month. Look at how many amazing events occur in May!
✨Arthritis Awareness Month
✨Lupus Awareness Month
✨Psoriatic Arthritis Awareness Month
✨Vasculitis Awareness Month
✨Fibromyalgia Awareness Month
✨Myositis Awareness Month
✨Ehlers Danlos Syndrome Awareness Month
✨Spondylitis Awareness Month
✨May 6th - World Ankylosing Spondylitis Day
✨May 10th - World Lupus Day
✨May 20th - World Autoimmune and Autoinflammatory Arthritis Day & Behcet's Syndrome Awareness Day
✨May 22nd - Gout Awareness Day
✅ Advocacy matters.
✅ Awareness matters, especially for invisible illness
Let’s support each other, share ideas and encourage each individual’s healing journey. Everyone with autoimmune disease, chronic illness or arthritis will walk a unique path. What works for some will not work for others and that’s ok.
Some of you will be attracted to yoga as a healing modality and some of you may be apprehensive. Some of you may be taking powerful immunomodulatory medications and some of you may baulk at the thought of mind-body modalities like yoga. Maybe they seem a little too "out there". Often, a combination of both approaches, conventional medication and complementary health modalities like yoga, can provide optimal health and quality of life.
Healing and wellness is often about trial and error. It is often about finding what works for your particular mind, body and spirit. The same applies with conventional medication like prescribed immunomodulatory drugs or biological agents: sometimes you need to try 4, 5 or more of these agents until you find the one that agrees with your immune system and which gives you the greatest wellbeing.
Do you live with an autoimmune diagnosis? What healing modalities have helped you? I'd love to know below ⬇️
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