Struggling with Chronic Illness and Depression

To add to David's excellent advice, diagnosis for all forms of Axial Spondyloarthritis has a huge delay. Here in the UK NASS (the National Axial Spondyloarthritis Society) has been raising awareness for a few years now. The average time to diagnosis has been reduced from ~12 years to 8. Obviously it's still a huge wait time, but I found it helped to know that my delay (18 years) in getting my diagnosis wasn't anyone's fault, it was just the lack of awareness. As for the medical help, it's super important that you visit your doctor regularly. Especially early in your treatment. There are a huge variety of treatments available and if you work closely with your doctor you can find the right one/ones for you much faster. Medication like NSAIDs, Cox-2 inhibitors, pain meds, biologics are useful. But I found physiotherapy (in particular hydrotherapy) was the best treatment. Remember that AS improves with movement, and if you do the right movements you can avoid the "bamboo spine" and hunchback that some people get. Take care of yourself and please try to get to your doctor. ❤️