An Introduction

Hi, I’m Hannah, I’m 22 and this is my 10th year of having severe M.E (Myalgic Encephalomyelitis), a condition that majorly restricts my life and mobility, leaving me to be bed / wheelchair bound. If you’re unsure of what M.E actually is, it’s a condition that attacks your immune system and causing extreme pain, fatigue, migraines, brain fog, weakness, (the list is pretty endless for severe sufferers unfortunately).

I wanted to start this blog for many reasons really, one of which is to raise awareness for such a misunderstood and ignored illness and spread the message of awareness with the help from the M.E community. Another major reason was, something to occupy my time with. It gets very tough to say the least being stuck in bed the majority of the time and I need an outlet, a way of still being creative, to enable me to express myself and hopefully help others on this chaotic and somewhat scary journey of chronic illness.

In the past I’ve unfortunately encountered several M.E groups that have been more depressing and triggering for me than anything else, which is most definitely not what we’re looking for in that type of group. We all know the realities of this illness, but triggering anxiety is the last thing I was hoping for. So my aim is to shed some light and hope within the community, though that may seem very few and far between at times, positivity is key and holding onto that spark of hope is invaluable.

I turn 23 next Saturday, which will mark nearly 10 years of living with this illness; an incredibly scary prospect for a young woman to face, thinking the past 10 years of my life have been spent in hospitals, units, nursing homes and throughout it all being confined to a bed or a wheelchair. This is unfortunately the sad truth of living with a severe chronic illness such as M.E and some of which people are completely clueless about. It’s not something that’s spoken about or maybe more so than that, it’s not something that’s heard enough!

I’m unsure at the moment how often I’ll be blogging; obviously it depends on how well I may feeling on that particular day. But I’m determined to build a blog where I and other M.E sufferers can be wholeheartedly honest about our condition and with that spread as much awareness as we possibly can. Having an outlet such as this is vital and I’m very much looking forward to blogging more about the chaos I call my life.