About RA

I got diagnosed with RA - Rheumatoid Arthritis - in 2021, which threw my world upside-down. I had never been this ill before and now I just got a chronic diagnosis. It felt like I fell down in a dark room or dungeon, unable to get out, and it was not like in Dungeons & Dragons!

“Rheumatoid arthritis, or RA, is an autoimmune and inflammatory disease, which means that your immune system attacks healthy cells in your body by mistake, causing inflammation (painful swelling) in the affected parts of the body. RA mainly attacks the joints, usually many joints at once.”

- CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention)

When I got the diagnosis, a huge challenge was letting myself grieve healthily. Some days I denied everything (even though I did feel severe pain) and some days I did pity myself endlessly. It was no balance at all. The way back to life was longer than expected. I read about all these people who lived happily with RA with the correct treatment, but it took years to find the correct treatment for me and I’m still not “there” yet.

Since I also have autism, my physical illness is very hard to deal with sometimes and sometimes I get anxious because of my treatment as well. I hate injecting myself and it causes severe anxiety.

All illnesses and disabilities are hard, but when you have both a physical illness, several mental illnesses, and also a disability like autism, it feels too much some days!

Art is what makes me going these days and part of why I’m doing it is to raise acceptance and awareness.