Loving myself, inside and out, has been a process. I wasn’t ever overly concerned about my dark skin or greying hair.  I also never really waivered about the strength of my inner qualities like intellect or kindness.  It’s the shell that covers me and the illness raging within that’s damaged it that made being comfortable with what I look like problematic.

For years, I didn’t know what was happening to me internally, I only saw the negative results: thinning hair, male patterned baldness, and extreme weight gain. The changes, at least initially, only seemed to hurt my vanity. But, unfortunately, chronic inflammation caused by the autoimmune disease IgG4 related systemic disease would go on to damage my organs, tissues and my joints. And, this would result in innumerable procedures and surgeries; that’s when my attitude about the body I’d been given changed.

To read the rest, click on the link below:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/nika-c-beamon/no-longer-ashamed-of-the-skin-im-in_b_8331350.html #NoMoreBodyShaming #autoimmune