Student Life October 2019

INTRODUCING LIZZIE
BY LEANNE ARNOLD
After reading something that Lizzie had
written I instantly felt inspired and wanted
to know more. Feeling that I could relate to
some of what she had written about I felt
curious to know how she dealt with things
and what led her onto the path she is now on.
I approached Lizzie and asked her whether
she would be interested in writing a piece
for Student Life as I felt all you guys may
also have the same feelings I had following
reading about her journey. Lizzie writes
about her experiences with chronic illness,
diagnosis, and mental health. As someone
who is diagnosed with a chronic disease
it was extremely insightful to learn about
how someone else has dealt with similar
struggles.
Chronic illness and mental health difficulties
often come hand-in-hand; however, this
isn’t recognised as much as it should be.
Although the mental health difficulty is a
separate condition to the physical health one,
it doesn’t mean that they are intrinsically
interlinked.
A co-morbidity is, put simply, the cooccurrence
of one or more health conditions
within an individual. There is the primary
condition, and all those conditions which cooccur
are known as the co-morbidities.
For an example: my diagnosis of
endometriosis is my primary condition,
the co-morbidity of it is the anxiety and
depression that co-occurs alongside it.
I believe that Lizzie’s article could help people
understand the struggles of living with a
chronic illness and how a mental health comorbidity
can form from a chronic illness.
I hope you are able to find inspiration and
strength too from reading her article.
CHRONIC ILLNESS & MENTAL HEALTH
BY LIZZIE SMITH
When I was asked to write this article I
wasn’t sure where to start or what to write
if I’m honest. The reality is, living day to day
with chronic illness has for me, been about
putting one foot in front of the other,
and hoping for a return to this shiny idea
I’ve held in my head for years of what a
physically better me looks like - I’ll call her
“Ultimate Lizzie”.
Recently, I’ve come to realise that “Ultimate
Lizzie” is just an idea – an unrealistic goal I
set myself a long time ago and one I need
to stop berating myself for not reaching.
Two decades of living with chronic illness
that’s taken. Maybe a quarter of my life if
I’m fortunate enough to become one of
those old ladies who doesn’t give a s***
(#lifegoals). That’s a pretty sizeable chunk
of time to realise you’ve been setting
yourself an unreachable goal. But finally,
I’m letting myself accept that it’s ok not to
reach it.
64 • OCTOBER 2019 • STUDENT LIFE