Thread by @loleen_berdahl

Some thoughts about living with invisible illness and academia... 🧵

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I've lived with autoimmune disease for two decades. I have always felt it was something I needed to hide in my career - a sign of weakness, something that might make people not want to work with me or give me opportunities. (I blame The West Wing, but that is another story). 2/🧵

This year I started my #AcademiaMadeEasier newsletter, with ideas to make academic work a bit easier with small steps to promote productivity & protect work-life balance. From the start, I was very open about the fact that I live with chronic disease. 3/🧵
loleen.substack.com/p/academia-mad…

I've also deliberately been more open this year with academic colleagues, including on social media, about living with an invisible illness. In the past, I only let my closest research partners know about this aspect of my life. 4/🧵

https://twitter.com/loleen_berdahl/status/1459187877489872899?s=20

My reason for being more open about living with an invisible illness is that concealing part of my lived reality is tiring. My disease can be exhausting on its own. I am past my mid-career point. If someone considers my imperfect health reason not to work with me, so be it. 5/🧵

What I did not anticipate in deciding to be more open about my own invisible illness is the number of people in academia who confide their own invisible illnesses to me. Always in hushed tones. To date, always women in less established positions or career stages than me. 6/🧵

It makes me wonder: if academia is seen as such an open, inclusive work environment, why do so many of us with imperfect health feel the need to conceal invisible illnesses? (I raise this sincerely and not as a rhetorical question.) And is it any better outside academia? 7/🧵

I hope being more open about my own autoimmune disease helps create space for others living with invisible illness to do the same if it feels safe for them to do so. And if not, please know this: academia is better due to your presence in it, imperfect health and all. Fin/🧵