On the outside, a person may seem perfectly healthy, but we might not realise that this person is struggling through every day of their lives because of an illness that is not evident to other people. Invisible illness sufferers often have their pain compounded by a lack of understanding from others and can find it hard to explain the difficulty they find with completing common tasks on a daily basis.

This infographic helps to understand invisible illness and provides striking examples of facts about people suffering. For example, the average length of time between initial onset of symptoms and eventual diagnosis is just under 6 years. Some examples of invisible illnesses are allergies, chronic fatigue syndrome, depression, fibromyalgia, and lupus.

The infographic spotlights the Spoon theory used to explain to others the daily difficulty tasks that people of robust health would consider routine, e.g. taking a bath.