Kaleb (he/him)
Diagnosed with MS at age 21
"I wish people understood how detached from reality you can feel when you're having even a small flare-up."
Listen to Kaleb's Story:
Listen to Kaleb's Story:
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The main symptom that I suffered from that affected school was the random days of brain fog, the inability to focus on any one thing, turning lectures into faint memories and not being able to really absorb any of the material that was gone over during the class. It feels almost like you're in a dream, where you're watching yourself go through motions, going to places watching the lectures but then you wake up and you know you did these things and went to the places but can’t actually remember any sort of details. You don't remember what chapter you went through in class or any of the examples and you're just staring at your notes of what went over trying to make sense of them, ultimately having to reread the chapter and try to make sense of it on your own.
I would talk to some friends about it who knew I was diagnosed with MS but they didn't really understand what the disease really was. They were supportive and tried to help if they were taking the same class, but thought I was just distracted for some other reason. When I brought it up to the professors, they were willing to help, but also just assumed that I wasn’t trying hard enough to follow along with the curriculum.
I wish people understood how detached from reality you can feel when you're having even a small flare-up. The feeling of just watching your body do things, going to places and only having a brief vague memory of it happening, and not being able to remember any details of the past however long. I wish people wouldn't just write it off as you slacking or not paying attention, because in the end if you're having one of those days you can be giving it your all and still nothing seems to stick.
I would talk to some friends about it who knew I was diagnosed with MS but they didn't really understand what the disease really was. They were supportive and tried to help if they were taking the same class, but thought I was just distracted for some other reason. When I brought it up to the professors, they were willing to help, but also just assumed that I wasn’t trying hard enough to follow along with the curriculum.
I wish people understood how detached from reality you can feel when you're having even a small flare-up. The feeling of just watching your body do things, going to places and only having a brief vague memory of it happening, and not being able to remember any details of the past however long. I wish people wouldn't just write it off as you slacking or not paying attention, because in the end if you're having one of those days you can be giving it your all and still nothing seems to stick.
