Never give up keep on hastling them

I genuinely think one of the hardest parts of being newly diagnosed with MS isn't even the MS itself. It's the endless onboarding process. You suddenly find yourself having to become an expert in benefits, PIP, Blue Badges, appeals, MRIs, neurologists' letters and proving, over and over again, that you're unwell enough. The cruel part is that MS is often invisible. On a good day you look fine, but all the paperwork asks you to describe your absolute worst day as if that's your life 24/7. I found that mentally exhausting. It took me months to recover from writing everything down, and I'm still not sure I ever fully did. I work full time, so the whole concept of having to constantly prove I'm disabled felt completely foreign to me. One minute you're trying to live your life, the next you're collecting evidence like you're preparing for a court case. It does get easier once you're through the system, but those first months can be incredibly tough. Looking back, that whole process probably affected my mental health as much as the diagnosis itself.