• Over 91% of disclosed staff disabilities are hidden
• Over 97% of disclosed student disabilities are hidden

This is consistent with global figures too - globally 1 in 7 of us live with a disability, and of those, 80% are invisible. That is 1 billion people who are living with a non-visible disability.

People experience disabilities in a very personal and individual way. This makes it even more important for all of us to increase our awareness and work together, helping Warwick to be inclusive and accessible to all.

Stories from our community

Learn more by reading the personal story of a staff member below and of a student in this blog - My Experiences as a Student Dealing with an Invisible Disability.

"Having fibromyalgia feels like my body has been taken away from me, and has been replaced with a totally different one that is constantly in pain and reacts strangely to everything!

I was on my honeymoon in August 2016 and became ill with fever, muscle aches and widespread pain, and I have not got better since.

On returning home I was checked for various tropical diseases, and after many tests, it was determined I had an unknown virus and was suffering post-viral fatigue. A frightening and a frustrating six months later, with a worsening in symptoms, I was diagnosed with fibromyalgia. This is a diagnosis of exclusion – this is the diagnosis you have after repeated blood tests, scans and assessments, and everything else has been ruled out.

My route to diagnosis it turns out, is actually fairly typical. It usually follows a significant event, such as a wedding or the birth of a child, or a traumatic experience, such as a car accident. The medical cause is still not known, but it appears that the nervous system becomes reset or hyper-sensitised, as it registers pain where there is no tissue damage. This does not mean the pain is imaginary – brain scans of people with fibromyalgia have shown a response that is similar to people with fractured bones. However in fibromyalgia, the brain is causing this pain, and not a physical injury.

The effect of this illness was that overnight I changed from an active person to one that struggled with mobility and became limited in everything I do by chronic pain. It feels as if I have flu every day. People don’t believe me when I say that, as if it is not possible to live with flu every day. But that bone-aching tiredness, the extreme sensitivity, the debilitating headaches, and the feeling that you have no idea how you are going to get out of bed or have a shower, as it just seems impossible that you have the energy to move, is how I feel every day. The pain also keeps me awake at night, and so disturbed, limited sleep has unfortunately become normal.

Fibromyalgia is also a condition that likes to embarrass you. Throughout the day I will have moments of high temperatures and sweating, followed by feeling freezing and shivering. I get shooting electrical pains down my arms and legs that can make me suddenly very clumsy and uncoordinated, and I can be extremely sensitive to touch so that a hug can be incredibly painful. Sometimes I have been in so much pain from someone touching me that I am convinced that they have broken a bone. Another exasperating symptom is ‘fibro fog’, where you can become incredibly forgetful. This has caused no end of awkward moments – such as completely forgetting my address when going to vote, being unable to remember my date of birth, and forgetting the alarm code to my house when trying to get back in!

Fibromyalgia has no cure and it is a life-long condition. The only option is to manage it. Pacing is a recommended approach, whereby you intersperse short periods of activity with rest, in order to prevent the ‘pay-back’ from too much exertion (a flare up of pain symptoms). I cope through acting as if I was normal, and planning how I’m going to get through just the next hour. Concentrating on just one hour I find more manageable, rather than a whole day which seems overwhelming. What has helped me most is swimming and hydrotherapy sessions with a physiotherapist and a group of fellow chronic pain sufferers. These have shown me that my body is still capable of some things. During lockdown, being without these has been akin to suddenly stopping a successful medicine, and I have been left feeling unable to manage the spikes in pain.

Fibromyalgia forces you to take life at a slower pace, which 4 years on, is still difficult accept.

More information on fibromyalgia can be found here."

Rachel Evans