Melodramatic, wondrous, theatrical, loud - these were all fitting adjectives to describe my personality as a kid. 'Over-dramatic' also fitted the criteria, but not when I was referring to the severe pain of my underlying disease.

Pre-diagnosis, I was always being told I was 'overdramatic', that I was milking the symptoms of my invisible disease in order to get out of doing simple daily life activities like chores, going to school or even finishing eating my dinner every night. Truthfully speaking, there was nothing more I wanted than to be able to do all those things. I wanted to have the energy to socialise with my friends without wanting to curl up in a ball and shut myself away from the world, to leave my house without the constant lingering fear of having an accident in public, to have the appetite to enjoy the simple pleasures of my favourite foods.

I was told I was being 'dramatic' over and over again until it reached a point where even I started to believe it myself. I started to normalise sitting on the toilet for over two hours at a time, putting up with constant stomach pain and cramping which, as far as I knew, was how a little normal stomach-ache was supposed to feel. I constantly overlooked the big red flags of a flare because I felt my symptoms weren't severe enough for me to be hospitalised. I allowed them to worsen until it reached a point where I became too embarrassed to seek medical help at all because I felt as if I was being over-dramatic.

As a result, I was left with scarring all over my body, numerous changes in my drug regime, and back and forth medical appointments from one medical field to another - dermatologist to gastroenterologist to GP back to gastro and so forth. I felt like an utter burden on the healthcare system as I was constantly trying to juggle appointments from different specialists, repetitively going back to my GP to complain about the same side effects of my Crohn's disease just to be sent away with another 7-day course of antibiotics, a tub of ointment to add to the stockpile that hid under my sink cabinet, and a specialist appointment that was 3 months out.

I found transitioning from children's care to adult care was a huge jump. At 16 years of age, I felt too young and stupid to tell my doctors after the fifth time that my medication regime wasn't working because what would I know? At the time I was just a child - so my opinion seemed irrelevant. I continued to follow my polypharmacy drug regime and suffer in silence.

What I really needed was help managing my IBD. I needed my new doctor to actually listen to what I was repeatedly saying and I needed to not feel embarrassed to speak up about my body which was evidently crying out for help. The child-to-adult transition gave me the realisation that it was now my own responsibility to learn how to manage my IBD as a teenager, whether I liked it or not. 

So how can I manage my IBD as a teenager?

We are all more than sick of hearing the same old wives' tales that are supposedly meant to 'cure' IBD - "Have you tried kombucha? Bone broth? Cutting gluten?" But here are some of my personal recommendations that have helped me manage my inflammatory bowel disease as a teenager.

1. Gut health - before you get discouraged, hear me out - I have always suffered from atrocious bloating due to my stomach not being able to digest and absorb nutrients as well as others. This means I have a rather slow metabolism and as a result, my stomach bloats so much you would take one glance at me and presume I was 9 months pregnant.

I found mixing super green powder in a large glass of water in the morning helped de-bloat me for the day, cleared my system and reduced my constipation. It is also packed full of extra vitamins which we often lack and is a great way to repair your gut health in a natural way. 

2. Moving your body - sports, strength training, yoga/Pilates - your body will praise you for any type of daily physical activity. Personally, the gym is my outlet for all the built-up frustration with my IBD. The endorphins it releases reminds me of what it can feel like to have a healthy and strong body and can temporarily take away the stress of my chronic side effects. It is a great stress relief mechanism and is my motivation to strive to become stronger than the underweight, weak and anaemic girl I once was.

For those experiencing a flare-up, you could focus on low-impact activities like walking or light yoga. Focus on one muscle group at a time to build your strength. Rest when you need to and remember to listen to your body when it tells you to stop. 

3. Listening to your body - as self-explanatory as it sounds, I am guilty of knowingly neglecting this myself, but can you blame me when I’m a first-year university student in Dunedin?! The constant party scene is almost impossible to escape and the week-long drinking benders are inevitable throughout O-Week, Re O-Week, the lead up to St. Patrick’s Day and crate day. I tried my best to keep up with the drinking culture for the first term of university, trying to convince myself that my re-appearing Crohn's symptoms and unsettled stomach were just because I had eaten something off the night before.

Over time I learnt to find a balance between the best of both worlds - socially drinking on the occasional night out rather than every other night. This allowed me to prioritise my health and listen to my body without having that lingering feeling that I was missing out.

The beauty of IBD unfortunately means you will never fully be able to prepare yourself for the curveballs it may throw at you. For example, there was a little flu that did its rounds around my university hall and ended up hammering my immune-compromised body for three months straight. Exams were a drag and I was fatigued all the time and at one point I was admitted to the ED. I was left with a horrendous cough and nearly wasn’t able to speak at Parliament's Grand Hall on World IBD Day because I quite literally had no voice. I hadn't nearly anticipated how long it was going to take for me to get over a 'simple' flu, but this was a prime example of learning to listen to my body and its needs for a faster recovery. 

4. Nutrition - I used to religiously take laxatives multiple times a day as I found my food would not move through my bowels. Since eating clean, nutrient-dense meals rather than preserved and deep-fried foods, I no longer need to rely on laxatives when I'm constipated. Simple changes like including fibre, protein and carbs in every meal I eat ensure my body is getting the macronutrients it requires. I have personally found that this has reduced a lot of inflammation, increased my overall mood, boosted my slow metabolism and corrected my eating pattern.

5. Advocating! - being a teenager living with IBD can be embarrassing and understandably so. But if I've learnt anything, it is that embarrassment is caused by putting far too much thought into what other people think very little about. So own your IBD because it is something we can't change about ourselves and is something to be proud of. Your disease doesn't show your weakness - it shows your strength, and the challenges and constant pain we endure every single day living with this silent illness.

Advocating and being a part of the IBD community is about raising awareness, preventing the feeling of isolation and learning and supporting one another at any stage or age of diagnosis as we challenge our way through life together.