Crohns disease is a punch in of inflammatory bowel disease.
During the first year and a half of my Crohns journey, I felt very alone.
As we do these days, I began to seek out online support.
I quickly learned that many support groups could be extremely negative, especially for someone who is newly diagnosed.
The negativity does make sense because mental health and Crohns disease can be tightly intertwined.
Depression can cause inflammation and inflammation can cause depression.
Depression and grief are not the same thing and unresolved grief can lead to depression.
I knew these support groups were not the place I needed to be during my grieving process.
There is no set formula for how each person should grieve or how long the grieving process should last.
I let myself feel the sadness, anger and the unfairness of it all.
In addition to the grief, I also experienced guilt.
I felt guilty for shortchanging my family of a healthy wife and mom.
I felt guilty for being sick or needing to rest.
Processing this grief and guilt was not easy and made me feel very alone at times.
I took a different approach this time and decided to build an online community on Instagram.
I was surprised to find so many people who could relate to what I was experiencing.
I dont think I will ever forget those feelings.
I aspired to be someone who could give hope and positivity to newly diagnosed people.
Crohns disease is not fun and can be very debilitating.
It can manifest in so many areas of your body.
A wonderful thing happened when I started helping others.
The positivity I was putting out in the world was helping me to have a more positive perspective.
My journey has been far from easy.
I spent so many years in debilitating pain.
Having a positive outlook does not mean there arent hard days and times of frustration, sadness and anger.
It means that I dont let those hard times define me.
