My illness is NOT invisible

I read an awesome blog entry today that was shared on Facebook by NAMI. It was about how mental illness is not invisible as everyone says. People just don't know how to spot it or don't bother to pay attention. I won't post the entire blog, but you can find it here:

Mental illness is not an invisible disease.

It really brought to light that all of my so-called invisible illnesses really aren't. When my schizophrenia acts up, I tend to mutter to myself and I flip my fingers together. I will also have trouble following conversations or understanding what people say. When my anxiety acts up, I have trouble talking and tend to rock back and forth, whether I'm sitting or standing. Or I'll grip something hard and focus on one thing and ignore everything else until I get it under control. I can be unresponsive for several minutes to half an hour. THIS IS NOT INVISIBLE! It is actually pretty obvious, but no one knows what to look for or they just ignore it.

As for my physical illnesses, they aren't really invisible either. They say fibromyalgia and autoimmune diseases are invisible, but they really aren't. I walk with a cane and with or without it I tend to lose my balance and use walls and counters to navigate. I limp and tend to drag my left leg a bit, especially if I am walking a lot like at a grocery store. My hands shake and I have trouble writing or doing small, manual things like get change out of my purse. I get rashes on my skin and arms if I'm in the sun too long so I wear a big hat all year round. These aren't glaring signs of illness like being in a wheelchair or missing a limb, but the signs are there if people would just bother to notice.

I think we need to change our labels. These aren't invisible diseases, they are ignored diseases. They are prevalent in our society, but no one wants to notice. Just like people get uncomfortable and don't know how to act when someone enters the room in a wheelchair, they don't know how to act around us, either. It is a societal stigma against illness in general that is the problem.