Another shadow population.
When I first started this blog, I thought the number of people in the US who were like me, with a chronic, undiagnosed illness that was not CFS / ME (Chronic Fatigue Syndrome / Myalgic Encephalomyelitis), was in the tens of thousands.
Then I found a group of CFS/MErs online who didn’t care if you have an official diagnosis or not, and after talking to them for a few months I upped my estimate tenfold. Then I found a Facebook group of people like me who had found success with mold avoidance, and eventually increased my estimate to the millions.
You are not weird or doing anything wrong. Except maybe expecting the American medical establishment to be able to help you. Or to even want to help you.
Posts I’ve written on the subject
A fruitless search for digestive experts
Annoying #$@! people will say re: your mystery health issue
Call for essays: WTF is happening? (see comments)
Chronic illness and “nice” people
Conditions to consider if you’ve been mysteriously sub-par for a long time
Getting the most out of a doctor’s visit, especially for chronic, unexplained illness
Seven things I’ve learned from chronic, undiagnosed illness
The disaster of my first alterna-doc experience and My second alterna-doc disaster
