The Official DO I LOOK SICK? poster!
Today we began our poster campaign to raise awareness! These posters will start popping up all around the University of North Texas and hopefully the surrounding Denton area. If a poster directed you here, welcome! Let me tell you a little bit about DO I LOOK SICK.
My name is Rachel and I was diagnosed with endometriosis three years ago. Having an incurable disease that even spell check doesn’t recognize opened my eyes to a whole new world. 1 in every 2 Americans suffer from an invisible illness. That’s half the country! Yet there is little to no awareness of most of these conditions. I read an article about a groundbreaking program at DePaul University for students with invisible illnesses and I thought to myself Why is this groundbreaking? Why doesn’t every school have a program for the invisibly ill? So I decided I needed to do something.
I started this blog, but it’s just the first step. You can read my first post here. It has a lot of statistics and info on just how many people suffer from invisible illness, and how they suffer. Divorce, depression, and suicide all have increased rates in the invisibly ill. And like the poster says, if you don’t have an invisible illness, someone you know does! But what can you do to help?
I want every school to have a program that recognizes and aids students with invisible illness. I want every sick person to be able to tell their teachers, employers, and friends that they’re sick and need a break without having to put on an act so they’ll believe it. I want people to have the support and love they need, sick or not! It may seem like a big problem to tackle, but the solution is simple, just one word:
AWARENESS.
So it starts here, on this blog. Scroll to the bottom of this page and hit follow, or “Like” us on facebook, or “Follow” us on Twitter, or better yet, do all three! Then share with your friends. Reblog, repost, share, and tweet your hearts out! Once we’ve got a big group of people ready for a revolution, we’ll start having events outside of the blog. We’re NOT going to ask anyone for money or anything like that – we’re just going to get some attention. We’re going to let sick people know that they’re not alone! We’re going to tell healthy people that their friends are sick and need support! We’re going to tweak the world – just a little bit – so that everyone knows about invisible illness, and it won’t be invisible anymore.
Our illnesses are invisible, but they are not silent. It’s time to make some noise! So many people feel so alone right now. It is lonely to feel sick and not look it. My illness is incurable. I will never be well. I am not looking for a cure. I am looking for care! Half the world is looking for care!
So comment! Tweet it! Post on facebook! Reblog! Put up posters!
Tell us you care!
JOIN THE MOVEMENT!
