Is my friend gonna be okay?
Hi all.
I (15M) have a friend (16F) who has undiagnosed hEDS and POTS (has nearly all the symptoms of both, visibly hypermobile and can hyperextend arms, heartrate rose with the standing/sitting test) and it makes me worry. A lot. She experiences knee pain every single day (not usually enough to hinder her, but she said that she's been noticing it more lately). Yet, she insists that she's fine, and maybe she is. Maybe I just have OCD. I'm pretty sure I'm a hypochondriac by proxy. But...I don't know.
I've heard utterly horrible things about this condition and what it does to people. I've heard that there are treatments, and that some people are less affected, yet it feels like almost every time I hear about someone with hEDS they're suffering and constantly in pain from literally everything and often severely disabled, as if it's untreatable or the treatments just don't work. I heard that 30% or so of people with hEDS have a full-time job. Only 30%.
Plus, I feel like I've driven her away because of this. My aforementioned hypochondria resulted in multiple incidents where I tried to encourage her to seek diagnosis (even begged her, multiple times), and she did, once, but nothing came of it (except a diagnosis with hashimoto's which i suppose is good that she got diagnosed), and now she utterly refuses to speak to me about her problems. She insists that she's fine. Yet, she once told me that she "feels like falling apart like a lego piece" and that "i feel like i need to disassemble my body and put it back together." But, part of why she refuses to seek diagnosis is because she's worried she'll get brushed off and that she's sick of doctors, which I understand (and have heard that this is a common experience with EDS), but...still.
I don't know. I'm worried. I don't want her to be in pain or suffer later down the line. Is there anything that can be done to help her if she does have these problems? (not asking for a diagnosis, i know thats not allowed) Is she gonna be okay? Am I just a hypochondriac maniac? Am I in over my head? I feel like I'm gonna lose my mind over this.