Living with Addison’s Disease can be a challenge at times. The symptoms are mostly invisible. It can feel like a lingering hangover. Sometimes, I forget I have the disease, but at other times it hits me like a ton of bricks. But to look at me you would not know. Behind my smile, I hide the truth.

A rare disorder of the endocrine system affecting approximately 1 in 100,000 people, Addison’s Disease means the adrenal glands have ceased to function no longer producing cortisol. Cortisol is essential to life and normal metabolic function, helping my body respond to stress.

I have to medicate with enough cortisol for a “normal” day whilst constantly adjusting things according to what my body is experiencing so that my levels don’t get too low, which would result in an adrenal crisis potentially causing a heart attack, stroke, coma or death.