Blogger Interview With Amy Harbottle

Hi, my name’s Amy. A beauty enthusiast living with and writing about chronic, invisible illness. I trained as a dancer before developing chronic illness. As my health fluctuated and my ability to dance changed I found a love in makeup and skincare, so trained in those areas. I did this trying to manage my poor health. In the 18 years of living with chronic illness I’ve learned so very much about myself, inner strength, loss, loneliness, society, awareness and so much more.

My health issues can be very severe at times and during these years I learnt the value of human kindness and the desperate need to spread support and further awareness anywhere we can. And so I set up my chronic illness support feed on Instagram. I didn’t (and still don’t) want anyone to feel as alone and terrified as I have felt fighting illness. There is a whole community of other chronic illness fighters out there longing to be connected, my aim, to simply give them a platform to do so.

My blog is also about sharing the truth about living with chronic, invisible illness. How we can look ‘fine’ but be very sick. Raising awareness through blog posts and forming solidarity through shared experiences.

At the same time, I want to be me. For so much of my life with illness, I felt ashamed, from a lack of understanding from society. I was made (and still am) to feel my illness does not warrant its pain because it is not visible, so I chose to hide. I refuse to do so any longer. Therefore my blog is all of me. It is the advocate, the supporter, the friend talking from an honest and real perspective. But it is also the makeup artist, skincare addict and all round beauty enthusiast. I review, I advise and I love it.

Thankful for my struggle-Finding the good living with chronic illness

I wrote this post after reaching quite a significant part in my chronic illness journey, for want of a better word. I’m an optimist and while I don’t necessarily believe everything happens for a reason, I think we can see good in most situations. In this post I discuss whether it’s possible to be thankful for something that has destroyed your life and if so how? It was a vulnerable piece for me to write and I think it lets the reader get a sense of who I am quite quickly.

Empathetic. I will always put others first.

My ‘health routine’ is doing what is best for my body. It is pacing. It is listening to my body, not to others but to me.

I have Coeliac’s so I follow a gluten-free diet. I also don’t have much dairy at all.

To be kind.

I think of those closest to me. They strive to do the best for me and so I endeavour to do the same for them.

To keep fighting! It is tiresome fighting for change, seeing Doctors who often can be unkind. Generally fighting illness itself can be overwhelming. However, I long to live, I long to be with my family and friends. They give me a sense of purpose. My blog does too. Caring for people, fighting for change, spreading truths-it’s all important to me, it keeps me going. Also, I believe you have to allow yourself to have your down days, the days when it all gets to you and not punish yourself for that. Everyone is going through stuff in life, we need to deal with it to be positive again.

Social media. Yes, it can be overwhelming at times but being able to reach out to those in a similar situation is vital.

My Mum. She’s incredible.

To continue building my blog and its community on Instagram.

Seeing my nieces!

Play with makeup!

It would be a class about coping. I don’t believe we leave school with true life skills and yet we’re suddenly faced with dealing with so much! Coping strategies should be part of lessons as should meditation, especially when it comes to dealing with the more negative aspects of social media that are becoming more and more apparent.

We should learn how to deal with stress more efficiently, we are becoming increasingly aware of the impact it has on our health. Simple techniques to support children and teenagers to deal with all aspects of life, be that family, loss, home life, workplace, study etc, I feel would be beneficial.