She was ill for over half her life & misdiagnosed with multiple mental & physical illnesses. She was never diagnosed, and after years of searching for answers, she decided a label wasn’t what she wanted or needed. She didn’t want her pain to define her but she wanted her pain to have purpose. She wanted to find light & escape the darkness. She decided to become that light and find it within herself, because once you find a light that is not from this world, the darkness cannot overcome it.
My name is Jessica from Become the Sunshine. I am in recovery from multiple physical and mental illnesses. I refuse to label myself and instead look at everything as symptoms. What I have went through is not who I am; it is simply part of my story, a few pages or a chapter, but it isn’t the entire book and it won’t be the title.
If I was to label myself in the past it would have probably been a long list including but not limited to: Lyme disease, Rocky Mountain spotted fever, Bartonella, Babesia, Epilepsy, Depression, Anxiety, OCD, BPD, hormonal imbalance, diabetes, digestive disorders, allergies, asthma, anemia, B-12 deficient and other deficiencies, chronic pain, chronic fatigue, eating disorder. I truly could go on but that isn’t who I am. These aren’t symptoms I chose and I am happy to say I recovered from most of them.
You see, you don’t always have a say on what life hands you, but what you do with it is up to you. That is what I decided to do. I found light and made it out of the darkness and I want to help others out of the darkness. I found a light within myself that isn’t from this world, and nothing from this world can take it away from me. This light not only shined me out of the darkness, but it can now help shine others out of it. This doesn’t just mean finding light within yourself. It also means shining light on the darkness and dark topics, because once you shine light on something, the darkness cannot overcome it.
If what I’ve went through can help even one person, it makes it all worth it, and it gives my suffering a purpose. I hope my story and words bring light into your life & remember, it’s a dark world, be the light. ☀️
--BitterSweet Coaching Guest Writer
You can follow Jessica on Instagram @become.the.sunshine