Being able to articulate to the world what it's like to live with chronic disease can be difficult, particularly when dealing with an invisible condition such as Crohn's disease. As many as 1.6 million people live with Inflammatory Bowel Diseases in the United States alone, with 70,000 new cases diagnosed each year. Having a chronic illness such as IBD can be an emotional rollercoaster. Symptoms can come unexpectedly and can be painful, uncomfortable, inconvenient, and embarrassing. In fact, studies show that the prevalence of depression and anxiety is higher amongst people with IBD as compared to people without.
That's why we were so impressed when we came across the incredibly poised and articulate Christine McCaffrey, better know as the.bright.sideee on Instagram. Her accent may give it away - Christine is Irish born and a recent science graduate from Ireland. She was diagnosed at the young age of 7 and has been living with IBD for over 17 years now.
Christine normally shares her experience, tips, and tricks for this invisible illness on her instagram channel, but today was kind enough to catch up with us to give us a better understanding of what it's like to live with IBD, and how Alike can help. While all of our users are completely anonymized on the app, Christine would like to share her story with others and was nice enough to share that her nickname on Alike is "CmcC".
Download Alike Health today and find out how you and Christine are medically Alike.
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