Would I rather have a visible or invisible illness?

With a visible illness it's obvious to those around you that you're sick. But you also get the stares, pointing and jokes. They can pretend it's not there, but it is. For everyone to see. There's no hiding it. Most people are polite and understanding but there is still the self consciousness of the individual and family.

With an invisible illness it's just that, invisible. There's nothing to validate your statement that you're sick. With an invisible illness you constantly get comments of "You don't look sick." "You're exaggerating" "It's just an excuse" "You're faking""The pains in your head" "If you just ate better..." "Maybe if you lost weight you'd feel better." "Have you tried?" "Oh, my friend had that and she's fine."

It's never ending. As if the pain wasn't bad enough, now everyone has an opinion and knows more about your illness than you. They take you trying to raise awareness or talking about your illness as attention seeking and all we want is support and understanding.

So I don't know. Either way has its pros and cons. I'd much rather just be healthy but since that isn't an option then I guess I'll just take what I get.