Chronic disease would be easy to spot … wouldn’t it?

Many people suffer from invisible chronic illnesses, which can be extremely debilitating for the sufferer, but aren’t necessarily visually apparent to others. Living with invisible chronic disease can be particularly difficult for the sufferer because of the natural feelings of anxiety, insecurity, frustration and fear associated with being ill, combined with the added pressure of sensing that some people do not believe in the authenticity of the condition. (It is common for people to be more sympathetic about illnesses that manifest themselves more clearly, and some sufferers of invisible chronic illnesses may appear deceivingly well to others.)

Examples of invisible illnesses include:

• post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD);

• mental health issues such as anxiety, bipolar disorder and depression;

• diabetes;

• LUPUS (an incurable immune system illness);

• fibromyalgia (musculoskeletal pain and fatigue disorder);

• multiple sclerosis (MS);

• ME, chronic fatigue syndrome, post-viral fatigue syndrome;

• arthritis

• cancer;

• heart disease;

• epilepsy.

Some of these illnesses are not yet well understood by the medical profession (in fact, it is common for doctors who qualified before 1990 not to have learned anything about fibromyalgia). They are historically very hard to diagnose and very hard to find treatment for. Because of this, they are sometimes labelled as psychosomatic complaints (i.e. psychiatric problems that are not really physical at all). This does a dis-service to sufferers of these illnesses, many of whom are in severe, chronic pain.

On-going, persistent pain will clearly have an impact on the quality of a person’s life and can lead to other issues such as depression, relationship breakdown and difficulty continuing to work. In the majority of cases, people suffering from chronic invisible conditions would benefit from carrying on with work, even if they are unable to perform their work role as before. For advice on how chronic invisible conditions can affect people in a work context, and for help supporting sufferers of chronic disease, call the free Health for Work Adviceline on 0800 0 77 88 44.