Invisible Illness Awareness - What is An Invisible Illness?

When you first meet someone with fibromyalgia (FMS) or chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS or ME/CFS) you likely have no idea that person is sick. Same goes for people with arthritis, multiple sclerosis, diabetes, heart disease, cancer, eating disorders, depression, endometriosis, diverticulitis ... the list goes on and on.

When someone has the flu, or a cold, or an injury, it's generally pretty obvious by looking at them. We can also see when someone is in a wheelchair or uses a cane, or if they're hauling around an oxygen tank. Those are the images that come to most people's minds when they think of "chronic illness" or "disability." Here are some staggering facts:

• According to the U.S Census Bureau, 96% of chronic illness is invisible.
• Nearly half of Americans are living with some sort of chronic illness.
• 70% of people who commit suicide have uncontrolled pain.

Pain, along with fatigue and brain fog, are invisible symptoms of our invisible illnesses, but that doesn't make them any less debilitating than visible symptoms. National Invisible Chronic Illness Awareness Week (Sept. 8-14) aims to get people to understand that concept, and you can do your part. How?

• If you blog, write a post about your invisible illness and follow these instructions.
• Share this article with friends and family, and send it to your local newspaper as an OpEd piece: Can Those with an Invisible Illness Park in the Blue Spots without Others Seeing Red?
• Visit the home page for the awareness effort and look at "Fast Ways to Help Us Out" (at the bottom of the page.)
• Forward this blog to people you think need to better understand invisible illness.

Do you have ideas for how we can make the general public more aware of invisible illness? Share your ideas here or in About.com's Fibromyalgia & Chronic Fatigue Syndrome forum (under Newsletter & Blog Topics.)