059 Faith, Chronic Illness, and the Pressure to Pretend You’re Okay | with Kaylen Soriano

What happens when chronic illness changes your identity, your relationships, and even the way you show up at church? In this conversation, April sits down with Kaylen Soriano of  Chronic Yet Undefeated⁠

to talk honestly about epilepsy, masking, loneliness, faith, emotional exhaustion, and learning how to trust God in seasons that feel unpredictable. Together, they explore church culture, gratitude without toxic positivity, and the difference between real hope and pretending everything is fine.

What You’ll Learn

• What life with epilepsy can actually look like behind the scenes

• How chronic illness can slowly reshape identity and relationships

• Why masking becomes so common in church culture

• The emotional toll of unpredictability and canceled plans

• How Kaylen worked through bitterness, fear, and victim mentality

• What “real hope” looks like when healing doesn’t happen instantly

• Why your emotions are not too big for God

• The difference between gratitude and dismissing grief

• How chronic illness can deepen trust and dependence on God

One Tiny Step

The next time someone asks how you’re doing, try giving one honest sentence instead of the automatic “I’m fine.”

Not a full explanation.

Not your whole story.

Just one honest sentence.

Guest Info

Kaylen S., Chronic Yet Undefeated

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61587608874826

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@ChronicYetUndefeated

Resources

• The Invisible Illness Club Website⁠ www.theinvisibleillnessclub.com

• The Invisible Illness Club Podcast⁠ https://bit.ly/4jjOEDs

• Join The Unseen Sisterhood Newsletter⁠ https://www.theinvisibleillnessclub.com/unseen-sisterhood-newsletter

Credits

Hosted by April Aramanda

Podcast:  The Invisible Illness Club⁠

Music from AudioJungle

April Aramanda: Today I am joined by Kaylen of Chronic Yet Undefeated, a podcast and platform centered around faith, chronic illness, identity, and learning how to hold on to hope in hard seasons. Kaylen shares honest stories about what it looks like to live with chronic illness while navigating loneliness, unexpected limitations, and the emotional shifts that come with a life you never planned for. Kaylen, welcome.

Kaylen: Hello. Thank you for having me.

April Aramanda: Yeah. Well, I’d love to start with your story a little. So, for people meeting you for the first time, what does life actually look like for you right now?

Kaylen: Well, currently life has been pretty okay. I have, of course, times where I’m having rough weeks that are often unexpected. I do have epilepsy, and that started when I was about 9 or 10 years old. So I’ve been dealing with that on and off since then. I’m now in my 30s, so it’s been quite a few years. I’ve had a lot of good seasons. I’ve had a lot of really rough seasons with dealing with that.

April Aramanda: Yeah, that sounds about right for all of us. What has chronic illness changed the most about your everyday life? And I’m not talking logistically and physically, but emotionally. What has that changed for you?

Kaylen: Chronic illness has changed me a lot emotionally over the years. As a kid, I don’t think it sunk in real deeply what that really meant. I was kind of like, well, I’m a normal kid. I’ve always been a normal kid.

But as time goes by, it really sinks in because people treat you differently. Your friendships aren’t the same as they once were. It wasn’t like, “Oh, you’re good. Yeah, let’s hang out.” It’s more like, “I don’t know. Should we invite them? They might not make it. They might feel too sick.”

You get to high school and all your friends want you to take driver’s ed, and you’re like, I don’t know if I want to say that I can’t do that. I can’t get a driver’s license.

April Aramanda: Right.

Kaylen: I had some friends who were really rude to me about it. Like, “Why won’t you take this class with me? It’s so easy. There’s nothing really to do in it.” And that was really difficult emotionally, to be like, well, I can’t, and I don’t know how to make you understand that I’m not able to do that.

That was one thing that affected me a lot growing up. Medication side effects are another aspect of that. Sometimes you might feel irritable and maybe you don’t really know why. With epilepsy on top of that, one day you might feel really sad, agitated, or overwhelmed, and you’re like, where is this coming from?

That can be a big challenge to navigate with epilepsy and chronic illness in general. I think there are a lot of similarities with the emotions and missing out on the things you hoped you would have been able to do.

April Aramanda: I can imagine. For those who don’t know, if you have epilepsy, that is seizures. So you cannot get a driver’s license if you’re having seizures. That’s what she’s talking about in her teenage years.

I can imagine that’s hard, seeing all your friends getting their driver’s licenses and driving around while you’re stuck. You can’t do anything about that. That sounds like it would be very difficult for me because I’m very independent, and it would have driven me crazy.

You mentioned that your symptoms can show up suddenly and, of course, change your plans overnight or in the next minute. What do you think people most misunderstand about that unpredictability?

Kaylen: What I think people most misunderstand is they might see me out around town on Friday or Saturday. They might be like, “Well, you were having fun with your family or your friends. I saw you going out to eat. You seemed fine.”

Then Sunday morning for church or something, they might be like, “Well, why weren’t you there if I saw you yesterday?”

They seem to think sometimes that I’m faking it. That I didn’t want to show up. That I didn’t want to come. That I’m ditching God. And that’s a really hard one to navigate.

You could say, “Well, I wasn’t feeling well,” or, “I was great yesterday, but today was not the same story.” But some people will say, “Maybe next time. Maybe next Sunday.” Then maybe next Sunday is the same story. If things keep continuing, after a while it becomes more passive aggressive, like, “Well, are you coming back or are you not?”

Some people think, “Oh, you can’t be sick this much. This isn’t possible.” If you’re not chronically ill, I understand that can be hard to understand, too. But it does hurt when people assume or think you’re lying.

That’s been a difficult thing to navigate in my personal life, workplaces, especially workplaces, volunteering, or any other group activities.

April Aramanda: Yeah, that can be extremely difficult, especially if you’re a very social person. It sounds like you like to do a lot of things. You can’t always do what you were hoping or planning to do.

Do you feel like you’re always mentally preparing for things to change?

Kaylen: I always have hopes that I’ll have better days, that things will get better, that I’ll be able to volunteer for this new thing or that new thing.

Some things, like driving, I don’t know if they’ll change. There have been times when I could have gone for a license because I was seizure-free for that amount of time, but part of me finds it nerve-wracking. I don’t know if I want to get behind the wheel and risk that, because all it takes is one bad day, one bad moment of something that has never happened before.

That’s something I don’t know if I’ll ever change my mind on completely. But I do try to keep hope that things will get better, or that I’ll have more good days than bad days, and keep going.

April Aramanda: Right. Well, that kind of thing for any of us with chronic illness, and you with epilepsy, can change our identity. You started this early in your life, having to do that and change over time who you were.

Do you feel like you’ve had a big shift in who you are, or do you feel like it’s been gradual because of that?

Kaylen: I definitely have had some big shifts. When I first started as an elementary school kid, I didn’t know how it would affect my future, how it would affect me, or how people saw me. I didn’t expect that to be much different or know what it meant for my life at that point.

Then I learned that people had their own ideas about what epilepsy meant. People would tell me, “You can’t watch that thing. It has flashing lights.” But only about 3% of the epilepsy population is photosensitive. They are out there, but it’s a smaller percentage.

Some people might be like, “You can’t watch that movie. You can’t play that video game.” And it’s like, I’m fine. I don’t have that with epilepsy.

Or false representations in the media, or making it a joke, are the hardest. Like, “Oh, I faked a seizure to skip my math test.” Things like that. People think it’s funny or a joke sometimes.

When I got older and realized more, I became incredibly bitter. I found myself in places where I didn’t have a lot of friends. I was very introverted. I became more introverted as time went on because I felt like people didn’t get it. They didn’t seem to understand.

I didn’t know how to explain it to them, or whether I should explain it to them. Would they still be my friend if I did?

I’ve definitely had people stop talking to me entirely, no contact after I had a seizure in front of them. Things like that became anger, bitterness, and sadness over time. I carried that all the way into adulthood for many years.

At my church, they had a Freedom in Christ course. I didn’t know if it would be really judgmental on the illness aspect of it, but I thought, maybe I’ll try it.

There were a lot of things I hadn’t thought about that were shown from a different perspective. It was weighing me down a lot more than I thought it did. I had formed that victim mentality, or I expected others to automatically know and accommodate me. I couldn’t explain it well, or I was afraid to.

I’ve been able to kick that victim mentality out of my life a lot, forgive a lot of people from the past, boot out the lies the enemy tells us, bring in God’s Word instead, and rely on what He says about us rather than what the world does.

April Aramanda: So is that how you got rid of the victim mentality and worked through that — through Scripture and prayer? Or were there other things or people that came in and helped you with that?

Kaylen: There were people involved when I took the Freedom in Christ course. They prayed with you. They guided you through different aspects, perspectives, and types of hurts people have.

That was a big eye-opener for me. Also, identifying the lies we’re being told, like, “You’re a failure. You’re not good enough. You’ll never do this or that.”

I didn’t pick that stuff out over the course of my life very well. I was believing it, that I’m no good, I’m a failure, and I’m going to keep going this way.

When I had lists of Scriptures that told me what God thought of me, that I have value, that a one-time failure doesn’t disqualify me from heaven or God’s kingdom, that it doesn’t mean God has abandoned me because I made a mistake, and that He doesn’t see me as any less, I kept saying those Scriptures every single day.

Every time I was having a really rough time battling thoughts like that, I would start reading those Scriptures. It really helped. Praying and forgiving others helped me move forward, too. That’s made a really big shift in how I see the world.

April Aramanda: Being sick all the time really does have a huge effect on our emotions, how we see ourselves, and our worth.

Tell me something God’s been teaching you about your worth a little more in depth. You talked about having Scriptures that helped you understand how God saw you. Could you pull out one of those Scriptures for us? Do you remember a specific one that really stood out to you?

Kaylen: There is one, and I can’t remember if it was Philippians or one of those, but it mentions that we are citizens of heaven. That’s one that stuck out to me.

If I’m saved, there’s a place for me if we believe in Christ. There’s still that space there. We can still make mistakes. We can still have days where we failed, or we burnt dinner, or we didn’t make the time crunch we were hoping to before rushing out the door, and we’re dwelling on it.

Remembering that God still puts value in us, that we’re still citizens of heaven, and that we’re still called in that way was very powerful for me.

April Aramanda: That’s good. In this same vein, this also has to do with learning to trust God with things we can’t realistically control, especially for you with seizures. You can’t control that. You didn’t ask for that.

A lot of us with chronic illness can’t control the things that happen. Faith helping us learn to trust God like that is beautiful in theory until our body becomes unpredictable. Then we have to really see what our faith is.

What did learning to trust Him actually look like for you in real life?

Kaylen: Learning to trust God looked like shifting my habits around a bit. I didn’t always seek God first thing in my day. Sometimes I would go through the motions of the day and be like, “Why is this getting so overwhelming? Why is this getting so bad? Why does this feel like it’s not a good day?” Or it would feel empty, spiritually empty in a way.

Learning to seek God first in the day rather than last, like, “Oh, this thing happened, and now I’m coming to You because I have a lot of anxiety, worry, or fear,” made a difference. If I do that first, then the day feels more manageable because I have Scriptures on my mind and things I’ve been praying for.

At the beginning of the day, I can sit down and identify what I’ve been worried about lately or what fear I’ve had. I’ll find Scriptures that relate to that, write them down on a piece of paper, fold it up, and put it in my purse or pocket.

During the day, when I feel like I’m encountering that feeling or situation again, I’ll pull out that list of verses and read them for a few moments, then put them back in my pocket. That helps my day shift around a lot more to focus on God.

When I was growing up, I did grow up in the church, but I didn’t fully know what seeking God looked like until I was an adult. I didn’t realize it’s not Bible reading alone. It’s not prayer alone. It’s actually giving our entire selves to God, allowing Him to be our provider, and allowing Him to work.

Because things feel quiet doesn’t mean God’s not working. That was a big one when I was growing up. I wondered, why isn’t God answering me on this or that? Why don’t I hear Him? Why am I not being guided to the right answer?

Trusting that God is already dealing with it, that He’s already moving in a way we might not see yet, has shifted my thinking when it comes to God, trusting Him, and seeking Him.

April Aramanda: Do you find that you’ve been able to be more honest and open with God? Telling Him when you’re feeling bitter or mad, versus that more polished look a lot of Christians, at least in the church, seem to have?

Kaylen: Definitely. When I was growing up, I think I held it all in because I didn’t want people thinking differently of me. I already felt horrible about my situation after a point. I felt helpless in it. I didn’t know how it would get better. I didn’t know if I would have amazing days ahead or not.

So I tried to mask a lot of that and seem like I was okay.

Growing up, people would say, “How are you?” But if I tried to say, “Well, I’m not doing too great,” they didn’t know what to do with that answer. They were kind of like, that’s awkward. Sometimes people feel like you’re unloading or they don’t know what to say.

When I got older, I remember hearing a lot that your emotions are not too big for God. That was really paramount for me to hear because I thought, because I’m sad, angry, or bitter, I have to hide that because it doesn’t feel proper. I should be happy. I should be filled with joy. I should be grateful.

But I’ve learned that God created emotions, and He created them for many reasons. Our emotions aren’t too big for Him. In Scripture, we see David and many others who were very bold in what they were feeling, and they took that to God.

I can do that a lot more than I used to. I can say, “I’m having a terrible day,” or, “I want to curl up in my blankets and cry like a 5-year-old right now. I want to avoid everything. What do I do with this? Do I lay here a minute?” Sometimes, it’s like, I need the rest, and that’s okay.

April Aramanda: I like what you said. Your emotions are not too big for God. I think that’s a huge thing a lot of us forget sometimes, that we can actually be mad and tell God we’re mad, and even tell Him we’re mad at Him.

He’s not in a box. He’s a big, big God, and He can handle our emotions much more than we can. I really like that. That’s a great way to say it.

We’ve also talked a little bit about gratitude. I’d love to talk about this carefully because people with chronic illness are often told, “Be grateful,” in a way that dismisses the real pain. “Be grateful you don’t have cancer.” “At least you don’t have XYZ.”

How do you personally try to practice gratitude without denying the grief that comes with life like this?

Kaylen: For myself, I try to focus on small victories and small wins. The small things, like waking up and being alive today. I can see another day.

That’s a big one because I deal with a lot of seizure issues in my sleep. Sometimes falling asleep feels terrifying if I’m not feeling the best. There have been times I’ve stayed up late at night, thinking, let me see if I can stay up a bit and feel a little more stable before I go lay down. Then things are getting worse, and I’m like, I need to sleep. It’s a really difficult battle.

But when I wake up and think, “Wow, I woke up. I’m alive today,” that’s one thing I hang on to every single day. One day, that probably won’t be the case. I’m very grateful for that.

I’m grateful for when I can get out of the house and go somewhere. Someone gave me a ride somewhere, and I can think, “Wow, I can be here today because someone was willing to take me.” Or I’m grateful that I could take the bus and get here on my own.

It’s often the small things that I put my biggest focus into.

With my health in general, I know there are people with epilepsy who have it a million times worse than I do. I’m fortunate that I take one medication, because there are people who take two, four, or a lot more. Surgery may be their main treatment option, or maybe it felt like their only treatment option. I don’t know what that’s like.

I’m thankful in a lot of ways that I don’t have to have those larger struggles that some people deal with.

April Aramanda: Have there been seasons where gratitude felt impossible for you?

Kaylen: Absolutely. I would point to my teenage years the most. Everyone’s trying to figure out who they are, but you’re trying to figure out who you are with chronic illness on top of that, and it’s a lot harder.

I remember I got to a point where I was so attacked by the enemy, and I felt like I couldn’t open my mouth to even sing at church. I couldn’t even describe it. It was this feeling like I can’t.

There have been seasons in my life where I felt like the enemy was sitting at the edge of the bed while I was praying, waiting to destroy me. I’d pray, and then this bad thing would happen. I wondered, why is it every time I’m praying, something bad is happening?

I became too afraid to pray out loud. In my own house, I was so paranoid to pray out loud to God because I felt like the enemy was standing there waiting to destroy me. It was a really dark place that I found myself in. That lasted quite a long time in my life.

Spiritually, it was very painful because there was a big gap between me and God. I was listening more to the side of the enemy and not realizing our authority as Christians to tell demonic influences they must go when we use Jesus’ name. I wasn’t assuming the authority we do have, and that was crushing me spiritually.

That season lasted a lot longer than I would have liked it to. But now I know I can’t be afraid to worship God, praise God, read His Word, or pray. I can’t be afraid to do those things. His power is a lot bigger than demonic influences.

April Aramanda: It’s true. It’s very, very true.

We’re talking about chronic illness and church and faith, and I think this is a conversation a lot of people are craving.

So let me start with this question. What does masking look like for you personally? For listeners wondering what masking means, it means we’re putting on a show that we’re okay even if we’re not. What does that look like for you personally?

Kaylen: Masking for me usually looks like not engaging with people. I tend to begin isolating myself.

It’s not that I’m going to sit in the corner of the room. It’s more like, if someone talks to me, I won’t deeply engage with what they’re saying. I might give them a short answer. I might say, “Okay,” or something small, and then move on.

I might stay at home and not want to go out. That’s a spot I definitely don’t want to see myself in again.

My self-isolation tendencies are generally part of it. On social media, my masking looks like going quiet. On good days, I might be posting quite a bit. Usually if I’m doing okay, even if it’s a rough post, I’m still engaging. But when I’ve gone quiet, I’m not engaging with anybody. That’s generally when something’s not right. That’s generally when I’m hiding myself away and not wanting to deal with anybody.

Usually if people ask how I am, I’ll say, “I’m fine. I’m okay.”

April Aramanda: And that is masking. You’re masking how you really are.

Do you think church culture sometimes unintentionally rewards looking okay?

Kaylen: In some ways, yes, I do.

I’ve been to multiple churches over the course of my life. One I was in for a long time seemed to go by the culture of, “How are you?” and then you say, “I’m okay,” or, “I’m fine.” Those are the appropriate answers.

I don’t know if it’s because people didn’t want to deal with anything else, or if it was a customary greeting. I know if I said, “I don’t know if I’m that great,” they would give me a weird look or say, “Why?” or “Okay.” It felt out of place.

At church, sometimes you’re expected to come in, smile, greet people, sit down, listen to the sermon, and then afterward be social. Those aspects were really hard because I had a hard time growing up fitting in. I would withdraw myself. I didn’t feel like being social.

I was very saddened and hopeless with my life, and I didn’t want to talk to people because then I’d probably say what was on my heart eventually: that I feel hopeless, I feel sad, I don’t see a point to my life.

I didn’t want those things getting out because I thought they would probably be brushed off, like, “Oh, be happy. You should be grateful.”

In certain religious settings, certain church settings, I do feel like it’s rewarded more because if you’re seen as joyful, they think, “Oh, what a person of God. They’re always so joyful.”

But I’ve seen some very great actors. You would think they’re the most holy person on the planet, and then one day they turn around and completely walk away from God. I’ve seen it multiple times because I looked up to those people.

But I’ve also gone to different churches where people are like, “Oh, you’re not doing okay. What’s wrong? How can I help?” Some people are more action-oriented. They’ll say, “Is there anything we can do for you? Do you need a meal?” Or they’ll say, “Definitely get some rest. Don’t worry about this or that. You get some rest, and then we’ll go from there.”

I’ve appreciated those settings a lot.

Where I go currently, they don’t encourage masking. They’re like, “You’ve got to be real with people. You’ve got to tell the truth. You can’t hide and let people think you’re okay, because then no one knows what’s wrong. No one can help you. We can’t pray for you about things you don’t reveal. We don’t know how to help you, and we don’t want people silently suffering.”

They point out that you’re lying to people. Stop lying to people.

For a long time, it took me a while to see it that way. Like, oh, lying to people. I guess masking is lying to people. I still sometimes say good or okay because it’s so ingrained in me that I really have to think about it before I answer.

April Aramanda: I think that has become a customary greeting in our culture. “How are you doing?” “I’m doing fine.” Or, “I’m doing great.” So it’s not surprising that it’s in the church.

What you’re talking about with churches that allow you to say what’s going on, or “I’m not okay,” whether or not you have a minute to talk about it, being able to say that is few and far between, unfortunately.

I’m blessed to be in a church that is a lot like that. There are still people who do the customary greeting, but there are also a lot of people who are like, “I want to know what’s going on in your life.” That’s different for me, too, because I’m used to the customary answer. I totally understand what you’re talking about.

What do you wish churches understood more about chronically ill people?

Kaylen: What I wish churches understood more about chronically ill people is, for one, we might be great on Saturday and horrible on Sunday. We may have volunteered for something or really planned to be at that service or event, but we couldn’t. We wanted to be there so bad, but we were limited by our body. We couldn’t leave bed that day. We couldn’t leave the house.

That’s something I wish more people understood.

I also wish a lot of churches would not put chronic illness with demon possession or not having enough faith. Some are more on the faith-healer side, saying if you have enough faith, you’re going to be completely healed, or our prayers aren’t doing anything because you must have some spirit going on with you.

I wish those things didn’t exist in churches, especially when it isn’t of a demonic nature or a faith issue. Not everyone in this life is going to be healed. It’s possible. I believe in miracles. I believe that if God’s going to do it, He’s going to do it, and nothing is stopping Him.

But sometimes we have that thorn in our flesh that keeps us looking to God, keeps us relying on Him. For some reason, He might not take that away. But in heaven, we’re all healed. If it’s not here, it’s in heaven.

That’s something I try to remember. This is temporary. If He’s going to take it away, He will, and I’ll keep praying that He does. But if He does not, then I have to navigate it, keep seeking God either way, and trust that He knows what’s best.

April Aramanda: That brings me to the question: what to you is the difference between real hope and pretending?

Kaylen: The difference between real hope and pretending lies a lot in masking and non-masking.

Are you confronting what’s really going on? If you’re being spiritually or emotionally attacked, what’s your mindset like? Are you thinking, “This isn’t going to get better because of this”?

Sometimes, as individuals, we’re ill-equipped to handle it. We aren’t meant to handle everything on our own.

You might say, “Oh yeah, I have hope,” but deep down you might be saying that because you don’t want other people to think you’re less of a believer or less of a Christian because you’re struggling. That’s the pretend side of it.

But when you have real hope, you’re empowered. You know God is going to handle it. You know God is trustworthy. He’s going to get you through even a hard day. You know there are going to be better days. You know God is going to make this work somehow.

Trusting in God and seeking God really makes all the difference between false hope and real hope.

April Aramanda: Yeah. I’m sorry. Brain fog hit me really, really hard for a moment, and I had a question and lost it. So we’re going to move on to the next question.

What has chronic illness taught you about God that you don’t think you would have learned otherwise?

Kaylen: I think it’s taught me to really trust Him to the point where I’m like, “I’m here. Do what You’re going to do.”

If I were healthy, I might be like, “Please, no. Don’t let this happen to me. Don’t let that happen to me. This can’t be happening to me.”

But when you’re lying in bed and your limbs are starting to tremor, and you’re so shaky you can’t walk, or the room is spinning, and you literally can’t do anything except lie down and hope this passes, hope it doesn’t get worse, it’s like, “God, help me get through this because I have zero control over this at the moment.

You know He’s going to get you through. I trust You to get me through.

Being in a sense of total helplessness when it comes to your symptoms has increased my trust a lot because where else am I going to put it?

April Aramanda: I think it’s amazing the things God teaches us as chronically ill people versus what we might not have learned until later in life, or maybe at all.

God has definitely worked on trust with me as well since being chronically ill. It’s amazing that we get to see God work in a way we wouldn’t have otherwise. I’m a very independent person typically, and there is no way I would have learned some of the lessons I’ve learned about God, trust, my identity, and everything else if I wasn’t chronically ill.

Not to say I want to be chronically ill, but there are things we learn as chronically ill people that we might not learn otherwise. It’s pretty interesting.

As we close, I like to ask three fun questions. My first question for you is: what is your current comfort show, comfort game, or comfort book?

Kaylen: I don’t watch a whole lot of TV, so I don’t have a comfort show. I like books, but I don’t know if I have that one comfort book besides the Bible that I constantly go back to.

I do like video games. I like Stardew Valley. I like some of the older RPGs like Kingdom Hearts, Final Fantasy, and things like that. Harvest Moon farming games are a lot of fun for me.

April Aramanda: Yeah, those are good chill-out-and-play kind of games. That’s always fun. I have a few comfort video games myself.

What is your go-to cozy drink order?

Kaylen: My cozy drink order would be Dutch Bros. I like the banana bread blended freeze. That’s actually pretty good. It tasted a lot more like banana bread than I expected. So it’s become a go-to when I can.

I can’t always because of how expensive it is, but if I get a chance, that’s definitely it.

April Aramanda: Yeah, prices have definitely risen.

Final question: what is the funniest or most chaotic thing chronic illness has ever made you do?

Kaylen: Wow. That’s one I don’t think I’ve thought about a lot.

When I haven’t been thinking well in school, on those days where I could not think, I would be like, okay, do your assignment. I’ll come back to it later. Then I’ve drawn dolphins. I’ve written song lyric lines or things like that.

I’m like, what was I doing? Where was my mind at? It’s a bunch of random scribbles or random thoughts that came to mind. I guess it’s in the deepest part of my brain somewhere somehow.

April Aramanda: Brain fog is real, people.

I’ve got to tell you, I’ve been having conversations with people, and literally I can’t remember some simple word, like the word “the” or something. I can’t get that simple word out, and I’m sitting there going, I know this word, but I can’t tell you. So I completely understand.

Kaylen, it has been wonderful having you on the podcast today. Thank you so much for joining us here at The Invisible Illness Club.

Kaylen: Thank you for having me. It was a pleasure to be here today.