What does the term invisible illness mean?

Hidden, secret, unable to be discussed and taboo. Its one of those things that we dont talk about because its scary, not pretty and its not a life or death situation. It doesnt get the publicity because although its torturous, it doesnt have the death fear to it. Because of this most people will respond with, “you will be ok though?”, “oh theres probably a cure just around the corner..” Its also about poo which is never pretty nor smells nice.

Invisible illness is not easy to explain. Invisible illness is something only the person living with the illness truly understands and sees. You can't always see the illness, but you can always feel it. An outsider won't see your bloody bowel movements or internal abscesses. An outsider won't see your sleepless nights of crying on the bathroom floor in pain. An outsider won't see your ulcerating colon trying to destroy you. All anyone else sees is the gobs of makeup you put on that day and the fake smile plastered on your face so that no one else knows how terrible you feel. We hide it because we fear rejection. We hide it because we're trying to convince ourselves that we are ok. We hide it so you'll keep inviting us to things. We don't want to be sick, we want to be normal. We want to feel better.

The word "invisible" comes into it. We may not be in a wheelchair or have some kind of disfigurement that people can witness by just looking at us from the outside. It is what's inside that is affecting our health a great amount. Some more than others. But if you looked at anyone who has IBD or IBS, you wouldn't think we had any type of disability that affects our daily lives. They tend to assume we are capable of doing the same amount of physical activities with the more healthier people. It is kind of a blessing our disease isn't seen from the outside, as we would face people degrading us and misjudging our abilities, but on the other hand it is annoying because we are also still being misinterpreted as being healthy. It can be a struggle to put this information about yourself to someone like a new partner or colleague etc. It is complex on the words "invisible illness". All based on what others see from the outside. They see nothing.