I was diagnosed with Juvenile Rheumatoid Arthritis when I was 5 years old. It is an autoimmune disease that cannot always be completely controlled by medicine. Cases can be mild or severe, but what is most important would be to have other people understand what it is like to have this chronic disease. Here are a few facts about what it was like for me to grow up with arthritis:

1. Yes, you can get arthritis while you are young.

Autoimmune diseases are not limited to old people. Although there are many types of arthritis, anyone can develop a type of arthritis at any age. It is not a rare disease at all. Autoimmune diseases can develop at any age or anytime. Mine is not genetic, but I have heard that some people are more likely to get arthritis due to the Rheumatoid Factor. You cannot inherit an autoimmune disease, but certain genes increase the likelihood of it.

2. It is not constant.

People assume that when you are “sick,” then you are constantly feeling poorly. However, autoimmune diseases do not function in this manner, and they probably never will. If my joints flare up, they do it randomly and sporadically. I cannot make a schedule of when my arthritis is going to flare up. Pain can be mild, and pain can be severe. Mine is never constant. Sometimes I will get dull aches that make it difficult to write, move my jaw to eat, or bend my knee to push on the gas pedal in my car. When the pain is worse than that, I do not attempt to do any of those things.

3. It is confusing.

Sometimes I do not know I am in pain until I try to do activities that involve joints that are flaring up. Although nurses and physicians attempt to measure pain on a scale from 1—10, that is not how pain is ranked in our heads. When we are hurting, we feel the range without a number. Pain can creep onto you slyly and suddenly. One minute, you can feel fabulous. The next, you can be angry and upset for feeling trapped in your own body that sending you signals that something is wrong with it.

4. Pain does not have a marker.

No one can look at me and know which joint is throbbing. Like emotional pain, you cannot see it on someone like a bruise or a battle scar. This is the most important piece of information that anyone with chronic pain would want someone else to know: we can never know how much someone else is suffering and therefore, we should not want to make others suffer. I have been misunderstood countless of times for my autoimmune disease, and the worst misunderstanding is that people think I am perfectly fine just because autoimmune diseases are not easily seen. It is always easier for people with chronic pain to cope when they receive empathy from others instead of being judged for what cannot be discerned on the outside.

5. Positive thinking distracts people from pain.

It is easier with emotional support, emotional positivity. Chronic pain is more alleviated by positive thinking than negative thinking. I may not control my autoimmune disease, but I do control my reactions and thoughts about it. Positive thinking distracts people from pain. We may not stop sources of suffering, but suffering is also a mindset that people can be liberated from. No one needs to suffer.