I am a firm believer in the idea that everyone you meet is fighting their own battle. I think that it is more important than anything to be compassionate towards everyone we meet because we may never know what obstacles they have had to overcome.

Invisible illnesses are the thing that many people, myself included, are forced to deal with throughout their lives. These are chronic illnesses and conditions that significantly impair normal activities of daily living. I am a Type 1 Diabetic, and while I wouldn't say that this significantly impairs my daily life, it is something I have had to deal with 24/7 for the past eighteen years. My father has this too, and we often joke about how seriously people who are newly diagnosed take the disease because we are so used to living with it. But, in actuality, it is an annoyance that most people in my life don't know I struggle with.

Even people in my life who do know I'm diabetic don't understand that it affects me all the time. Not just when they see me take insulin before a meal, but when I wake up in the middle of the night with a low blood sugar and when I drink three bottles of water before realizing I didn't take enough for that snack. I don't like to talk about being a diabetic because I know that so many people have it worse than me, but the fact that diabetes is an invisible illness, I think, contributes to my feeling guilty for resenting it.

My brother also has learning and behavioral disabilities that affect the way he lives his life. He hasn't been able to go to college because of this and acts differently than most people. However, upon meeting him, it's not obvious that there's a reason for his strange disposition, he just seems different. Many people don't understand why, and this really has impaired the opportunities he has been given in life thus far. Compared, to this my "invisible illness" seems like a joke, and honestly it is.

I think that having a condition that I have to struggle with internally and knowing someone close to me who has also, while it has been hard, has also made me a better person. I no longer constantly need people validating my struggle like I did when I was a kid and loved the compassionate looks I would get from strangers when I took a shot in public. I know that whatever I'm going through probably isn't as bad as what my brother or millions of other people are going through unnoticed.

Invisible illnesses are real and you probably know someone who is dealing with one. All I have to say to that is do yourself a favor and think about that the next time you are overcome with whatever struggle you yourself are going through. I promise it will make your own life a little more bearable when you put it in perspective.