sharing my experiences in the hope that it might help others – support, info & stories for all things autoimmune
Joel – Creator of JoelVsArthritis
Hi! I’m Joel…
A man in my mid-thirties, from Norwich, UK who has had some form of arthritis or autoimmune disorder most of my life. Essentially my body’s own immune system attacks itself in various parts of my body.
I have had Juvenile Idiopathic Arthritis (JiA) since I was 11. Diagnosed with Ankylosing Spondylitis (AS) when I was 14 and Psoriatic Arthritis (PsA) in my 20’s. My condition unfortunately progresses with age and due to treatment to suppress my immune system, I am also vulnerable to infection – But I won’t let this stop me.
I have always struggled with talking about my challenges and disabilities so after a difficult year in 2019, I created this blog to share my experiences, raise awareness, provide resources for people fighting autoimmune disorders and to act as a bit of self-help for myself when the going gets tough.
I am stubborn and do as much as my body permits. So although there will be posts when I’m struggling or having a bad day, I hope that I can:
Inspire, demonstrate the positive side of those of us fighting arthritis or living with chronic pain and show that anything is possible with the right attitude and motivation.
I will also not shy away from the associated challenges of living with an autoimmune disease and hope that by openly talking about mental health, relationships, parenting and employment it can help others in a similar situation or newly diagnosed.
Feedback, contributions, guest posts etc. to help build what I am trying to achieve with this project and give others a platform to tell their story and raise awareness are always welcome, so please do get in touch if you think you can help.
If you enjoy your time on this site or in any way find it useful, please don’t forget to subscribe to receive notifications of new posts and like, share and comment on any articles you enjoy. It really does help!
Thank you for visiting – Joel. 🙂
New here or would like to read more about my story and motivation? Click here…
Help keep the lights on in 2020
It currently costs around £400 a year to run this site (not including my time) and it increases as the site grows. If you’ve enjoyed any of our content here, help us keep the lights on, keep improving or simply buy me a coffee by donating as little or as much as you like (via PayPal).
Thank you for your time,
Joel.
Latest blog posts
My morning arthritis routine
I have posted various photos on my Instagram over the last few months that have prompted questions about my daily arthritis routine. So I thought I would go into a bit more detail as to what that looks like. It should be noted at this point that I’m no saint here. I can’t tell you…
Chronic illness – a setback bigger than the illness itself
You might think you are helping by taking things away from me but you’re not. You are further knocking the confidence of somebody who is already fragile from their chronic illness. An event happened to me today that reminded me of something worse than living with chronic illness itself. The issue of people thinking they…
Unknown, yet shown
‘Oh, I see you’re limping away?’ *awkward pause as they wait for me to say* ‘How are you? You’re looking well?’ I deflect back, you don’t know my hell. Confused, they’re thrown. No gossip? Poor show. ‘What’s wrong?’, their patience expires. ‘Oh, just this long term thing’. I retire.
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