Lessons from having FND

When you have an illness like FND, it can be really easy to focus on the negatives and really hard to find the positives, so today I thought I'd write a blog post with 5 things I've learned from having FND. Some of them are positive, some are negative, but all of them are really useful and may help you in your life, whether you have FND, another chronic illness or are completely healthy! So here we go:

1. It's ok to not be ok - I think that this is an important life lesson for anyone, because people often think that crying, feeling upset or showing sad emotions is a sign of weakness or that it just isn't ok to feel that way. In reality, all of the feelings are absolutely normal and everyone feels them!

2. How to not let FND get in the way of everyday life - when living with a chronic illness, you have to adapt your life in many different ways, but over time, I've learned that if you plan your day properly and adapt things correctly, it is still possible to carry on with life as normal (ish) despite FND.

3. How to fake awake - what I mean by this is how to do make up/hair styles that make you look more awake then you are. This is a really helpful thing that I've learned recently for those days where fatigue and pain are taking over, but I just want to look 'normal'.

4. Listening to your body is really important - this is a super important lesson that I can definitely say I learnt the hard way. There are definitely times where my mind and body are slightly at war, where my healthy mind is telling my sick body to do something which just isn't realistically possible and won't be good for your health. But listening to what your body saying, not always what you want, is super important for health.

5. There's still a life to be lived despite FND - I guess this is kind of similar to my second point...very often, when we are ill, we almost put our lives on hold until we're better, that's just human nature, but when you have FND or another chronic illness, putting your life on hold isn't really an option. Because of this, I have learnt how to carry on with life despite having FND...even though my life is different now and isn't how I imagined my life would look at the end of year 11, it's still a life which I live in the best and most normal way possible.

So there you go, those were my 5 top things that I've learnt over the past 18 months since developing FND! xx