Video Transcription
Jordan’s Story
Hi, my name’s Jordan. I’m 23 years old, and I’m a young person living with a chronic illness. I was first diagnosed in 2005, when I was 16. Previous to that, I’d been sick for about six months with a really low quality of life. In February of 2005, I was diagnosed with Addison’s disease. It was really tough; I missed out on six months of school. In year eleven, I went to a total of a semester’s worth of school. I originally had planned to do some VCE subjects when I was in year eleven, but that completely dropped off because I had fallen behind.
I used to be really good at maths, but not so good at maths anymore. It really affected my memory, so a lot of things I used to do with friends, I had just sort of forgotten about, which was pretty awful. It was a great time to get to know who my good supports were, from who my good friends were. They were the people who stuck by me.
The other thing I really struggled with was body image issues. I lost a lot of weight—20 kilos—when I was really sick, and then got put on a medication that got me back to my 20 kilos, plus an extra 20 kilos on top of that. So I went from one extreme to the other, and in school, when you’re different, it’s tough. You know, with a chronic illness and depression, it was a real struggle. So it was about, you know, a bit of self-help, finding my support networks. My parents were pretty good, and good friends, and the nurses at the school that we had were fantastic. They were a really good support network for me.
Then, later on, I discovered the internet and had the energy to use it, which was fantastic. I found some really great supports through there, and Reach Out was one of those. It was really good. I have a really great network of young people that I talk to. I’ve been engaged in a lot of peer support programs, and the stuff that Reach Out does with their forums was just invaluable.
I’m always inspired by what young people do. I always think, you know, adults don’t think very much of what we can do, but we are amazing.
Video by Reach Out
