When I was first diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) four years ago, I didn’t know much about it. Google got me up to speed quickly. I soon learned all about autoimmune disease, systemic inflammation, disease-modifying drugs, synovitis, joint damage, and RA comorbidities.
What Google failed to prepare me for was how my rheumatoid arthritis would affect my mood and mental health. I wish I was more prepared for this. I wish every newly diagnosed RA patient could be more prepared for this.
I often heard from other people, “It’s just arthritis, you’ll be fine.”
I was anything but fine.