This article was written by a Kooth worker with lived experience and contains mentions of: chronic illness, school, anxiety
Going to school while living with a chronic illness is tough. It’s not just about the days I had to leave class because I wasn’t feeling well – it was also the days I couldn’t bring myself to go in at all.
There were mornings I’d wake up knowing I physically could go to school, but the thought of stepping into the classroom filled me with fear. I knew I’d be behind on work, that I’d have to explain (again) why I was absent, and that I’d sit in class feeling disconnected from my peers. While my friends stressed about tests and homework, I was dealing with things they didn’t have to think about – things they couldn’t understand. It often made me feel like an outsider.
Every time I missed school, I felt like I was falling further behind. The work piled up, and even when teachers were understanding, I still felt overwhelmed and sometimes guilty. I worried people saw me as unreliable or lazy, when in reality, I was trying so hard just to keep up. The fear of walking into class and realising I had no idea what was going on made me avoid school, and it became a cycle that was hard to break.
But over time, I started to accept that I wasn’t failing – I was just dealing with something most people didn’t have to. I found little ways to make things easier, like talking to teachers about catching up in a way that didn’t overwhelm me and engaging in things that gave me energy, like playing the piano or participating in the school hockey team. I realised I wasn’t alone – there are so many people struggling in ways we don’t always see, and there were lots more people who were happy to try to help me than I thought.
If you are dealing with something similar, here are a few things that helped me:
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