05/07/2026
Caffeine, Will Power and Positive Vibes, this is how we keep on going 💪 🔥
Still trying to figure out how to maneuver to share certain posts to both here and my main profile. So copy and paste it is for now.
For years, I genuinely believed I was just lazy, anxious, dramatic, or somehow failing at functioning unlike everyone else.
Meanwhile, my body was trying desperately to tell me something was wrong.
Most days, it felt like my body and brain refused to work in sync with each other.
Sole survival on caffeine, books, and whatever scraps of willpower I could force together? Uuugh. Don’t even get me started.
I’ve struggled with chronic health issues since early adulthood, and over time they slowly became harder to ignore:
the exhaustion, stomach issues, inflammation, pain, anxiety, burnout, and the constant feeling that something in my body just felt… off.
But one of the hardest parts about invisible illness is how easy it becomes to doubt yourself.
Second guessing every thought telling you something is wrong.
Convincing yourself you’re overreacting.
Wondering how you can feel so awful while still somehow looking “fine” from the outside.
Not too long ago, things got bad enough that I ended up in the ER because of severe pain and symptoms I couldn’t explain.
And honestly? They couldn’t fully explain them either.
Later, when I went to pick up an IBS medication I had been prescribed, I casually asked the pharmacy to double check that it wouldn’t interact with my current medications.
The IBS medication itself was fine.
But during that conversation, they discovered something else:
two medications I was taking had a potentially dangerous interaction.
One of them was an anxiety medication I had been taking incorrectly for the last 2–3 years after previously being told it was okay to take it “as needed.”
The other was my weight loss medication that I had recently been prescribed in April.
And that moment honestly SHOOK me.
Not because I suddenly distrust doctors or medicine.
But because it made me realize how important it is to understand your own medications, interactions, side effects, and body too.
I trusted the information I was given.
I never thought to question it.
And now I’m left wondering how much of what I’ve been struggling with may have been connected all along.
A couple years ago, when the symptoms started feeling crippling, yet I still somehow convinced myself I was “fine,” I started learning.
Reading my own lab work.
Researching medication interactions.
Tracking symptoms.
Learning about genetics, inflammation, gut health, nutrition, hormones, and chronic illness.
For the first time in a long time, I feel like I’m finally listening to my body instead of constantly gaslighting myself into believing I’m “fine.”
How many times have we left appointments feeling unheard simply because we didn’t know how to advocate for ourselves?
How often are we taught to push through and ignore symptoms simply because they aren’t visible?
Why do so many of us normalize daily pain, exhaustion, and symptoms we were never supposed to live with in the first place?
I know there are so many people silently living in survival mode right now while blaming themselves for symptoms they don’t fully understand.
So maybe this is me finally talking about it.
And if you’ve ever felt dismissed, exhausted, overwhelmed, confused, or alone in your health journey…
I see you. 🖤
