A woman reveals that it's hard to fight a hidden disease that "ended in her day at 17"

A woman revealed how a hidden disease "ended her life at 17 years old".

The weakened ME condition of Natasha Spychalski can see her sleeping up to 23 hours in a row, only waking up to eat and take a shower, before going back to sleep.

Aged 25, she dreamed of starting a degree in fashion buying and hoped to pursue a career in the acting profession before illness.

But in her last year at university, she became ill with glandular fever, reported ExaminerLive.

The illness pbaded but her symptoms did not do it and she had so little energy that she came home to sleep during the day.

While her friends were dancing at her 18th birthday party, Natasha was left out, too tired to join them.

After undergoing a series of tests, Natasha finally received a diagnosis of ME (Chronic Fatigue Syndrome).

In addition to that, she also suffers from fibromyalgia, a long-lasting condition that causes pain throughout her body.

His condition is incurable and there is no effective treatment.

She shares her story to help people understand that not all disabilities are visible and some have symptoms that you can not see.

"I feel as if my life stopped at 17 years old.

"The illness really deteriorated after I left university, I was in bed, I really struggled to do something active. bathroom was difficult.

"I had managed to get into college, studying fashion purchases at the Manchester Met. I spent two days and I could not stand it. I could not get up and I could not stand up. Had so bad.

"The following week, I resigned, I was completely deflated.That is what you should do at age 18. All my friends were gone to university and I was out of school. was stuck at home without anyone. "

Natasha, who lives in Bolster Moor, Huddersfield, with her mother Pam, her father Richard and her brother Alex, aged 28, started working for his parents' real estate rental business, but has also had to give it up.

Instead, she spent her teen years and her 20 years trying to manage the symptoms.

And despite her sunny personality, Natasha's health condition led her to suffer from depression.

She says, "There are good and bad days.

She says fibromyalgia causes joint pain but ME causes brain fog and concentration problems. The light and the noise touch her and she suffers from articular and muscular pains.

She said: "Chronic fatigue makes you feel so heavy, as if you have run 10 marathons in a row, you feel like a dead weight.

"It's like walking in a pool of syrup." The pain is as if your whole body was bruised and something was squeezing it.

But Natasha says that people's reaction to their condition is worse than pain and fatigue.

She said, "The worst thing is that people do not understand it.

"People say I'm lucky to be able to stay in bed all the time, but I'm tired of being stuck, unable to get out.

"I missed so much.

"All my friends buy houses, have long-term relationships, have children, I could not even think of being like that, I feel like I'm stuck between four walls from eight years."

"I like to go to the movies and in the theme parks, go out with my friends for a drink and discuss normal things that are not tired.

"I try to go out twice a month, but I go to sleep all week to save enough energy.

"When you cancel too often with a friend, they do not bother after."

Natasha has tried many types of therapies, from painkillers to speech therapies, to mbadages, and even cannabis oil (CBD) – but has not found much relief.

She said: "Doctors do not understand the situation very well – there is not enough funding or research They do not know what to do My doctor understands but does not know what to do because there is no remedy." or a treatment.

"CBD oil has helped relieve my depression, but not my chronic fatigue, the only thing that has helped relieve pain is tramadol."

But Natasha has found help and support among other victims online.

She said: "In Huddersfield, I found that support group members were much older and I could not understand them, but online there are people my age and younger.

"You hear online talking about people who have had it since the age of 11 or 12 – I do not know how they did high school."

She says that she has lost friends and boyfriends – but that she has huge support from the people closest to her.

"My parents are really good, they will do whatever they want, they will pay for anything, they just want me to be better one day.

Natasha dreamed of becoming an actress and doing extra work in Waterloo Road and Shameless. But his illness made it too difficult.

She said, "I loved it – it's the best thing I've done." That made me want to do it more and go to the gym. drama school, but the days are very long.Today, I feel good but tomorrow I will probably be in bed all day .. ME is so unpredictable. "

Now, Natasha hopes her experience will help others understand what it means to live with a chronic illness.

She said, "I want people to listen.People know what I am, but they badume it's just fatigue.It's a lot more than that.

"They're judging you to be lazy or pretending because they can not see what's wrong with you, but if it was not real or if it was in my head, how could it still be here after so long?

"You do not know what people just live by looking at them."