✎ About Me ✎

Long story short:
I'm Lydia Williams and this is my blog.
I'm 22 and I live at home because:
I have a chronic connective tissue disorder. It sucks.
I studied at uni for one year in Jewellery Design, it didn't work out because:
I have a chronic connective tissue disorder. It sucks.
I wasted away two years of my life feeling unmotivated and depressed because:
I have a chronic connective tissue disorder. It sucks.
I started a blog so I could vent about everything.
I soon got bored of venting so I starting looking at fashion DIY blogs.
I'm now completely hooked on this blogging malarkey.
I'm also now applying to starting uni again to do Contemporary Arts Practice.

Long story:
I first started seeing the signs of my connective tissue disorder when I was about 12 and it has got progressively worse since. My condition called Ehlers Danlos or Hypermobility syndrome affects all the connective tissue in my body (connective tissue makes up most things in your body; muscles, ligaments, tendons, organs etc). It means that the connective tissue is very lax and loose; this means that all my joints are very lose and are susceptible to subluxations and dislocations. This then causes the muscles to tighten to try and keep the joints in place. All this leads to chronic and acute pain and lots of heavy medication. It also affects my digestive system and my bowels, but nobody wants to hear about that so let's just say I have IBS! I also suffer from Trigeminal Neuralgia, Restless Leg Syndrome and I basically have Cystitis symptoms the whole time. All of this means I'm in pain 24/7, I get tired easily, I don't sleep well because the pain wakes me up, walking for me is like climbing Mt Everest for you, and lets not forget all the side effects of my medication. I seem to end up taking medication to help stop side effects from other medication; it's ridiculous!
As I said before, it sucks.
So after I left school I didn't know what to do but I knew it had to be creative, so I did some evening classes at the local college that led me to go to uni to do Jewellery Design. Being away from home (even though I had a full-time carer), a physically demanding course and depression all led to me only managing one year.
So I came back home and for about two years I spent my time alone, feeling sorry for myself and got completely de-motivated as my condition continued to get worse. Having spent such a long time like that it was and still is hard for me to get, and keep, motivated. But I'm working on it. It helps that I have a goal now (to try uni again) to keep me positive. But it was this blog that really spurred me on in the right direction, without it I would still be lying in bed all day doing nothing.
So that's me in a very large nutshell!