Thoughts During Crohn’s and Colitis Awareness Week 2021

To all my fellow IBD’ers, family, friends, carers, and everyone working to make IBD lives better, I’m sending all the love to you during Crohn’s and Colitis Awareness Week and always.

I’ve previously posted a lot during Awareness Week and indeed all year round about IBD and my experience with Crohn’s Disease. I feel like it should be the same this year. I feel like I should have something new to say or a different piece of content to share.

But to be honest I don’t, because I feel like I’ve shared as much as I can possibly share at the moment.

I’ve talked about what I’ve learnt so far, how I’ve changed as a person because of my IBD, the mental and physical health impacts of IBD, tips and support for those of us with IBD, as well as writing for other publications and raising awareness as much as I can offline.

I would love to share more about the work I am doing in my part-time job, but it’s confidential, so I genuinely am not allowed to talk about it.

For the past year or so, I have been on medication which is keeping things relatively stable. I have had a few off periods when my fatigue hasn’t been great and a couple of bugs that won’t have been helped by being on immunosuppressants, but on the whole, there has been a lot of normality in life (well as much as we can have while still living in a pandemic). I am grateful for this time and I know how quickly things can change, so I just want to live in the moment and make the most of time when feeling well.

After going through various traumatic moments with Crohn’s and living with health anxiety and the stresses that can come with chronic illness, I am continuously having to work on my mental health and overall wellbeing. I am in a much better place than I was 2 years ago and find that having to delve back into moments of personal trauma which I’ve worked hard to overcome to create awareness content just isn’t the best thing to do.

And now we’re here. If you’re still reading, thank you for sticking by my somewhat open letter/mind dump of a blog post. Raising awareness for Crohn’s and Colitis is still something I am deeply passionate about and will always continue to do. I guess I’m just a bit tapped out for now when it comes to my own online platform and talking about IBD. If ever something new happens or I discover resources or tips which could help, I will always share.

There’s so many of us who have been living with IBD for a good few years now. IBD for many is a part of life and we all find our own ways to deal with it over time.

But new people are getting a diagnosis of IBD every single day and are desperately in need of support and to connect with others who can provide that reassurance, advice and help with adjusting to IBD life. Even long time IBD’ers go through new struggles. That’s why talking about IBD, raising voices and working to make a difference matters always. You are never alone. Even if I’m not constantly posting about IBD and chronic illness on this blog, I’m still here. For new and existing members of the IBD community, we’ve got each other’s backs.