Angélique is in her mid-20s. Pain has been with her for more than half of her life. It all started when she was eleven: Since then, Angélique has been constantly plagued by joint pain – sometimes milder, sometimes stronger. Their thoracic vertebrae often shift slightly. Then Angélique feels pain, as if “a knife had been stabbed in her back”. The pain radiates to the entire upper body. Her hips sometimes lock up when she runs, making even simple movement a torture. Her joints also often become painfully dislocated - during simple movements such as sitting down. A marathon of doctors begins for the girl - from orthopedists to rheumatism specialists - but no one can really help her. For Angélique, the constant pain means that she is often tired and exhausted. While her colleagues are out and about, doing sports or meeting up, she sometimes doesn't even manage to do her homework.
No understanding of the school
Because pain is her constant companion, Angélique develops chronic pain syndrome. She has to take a “cocktail” of high-dose pain medication and muscle-relaxing medication, which, however, only helps a little. Sometimes she cannot attend classes for weeks. Both the school management and some teachers and classmates show no sympathy for Angélique's situation: “In retrospect, I found out that a teacher asked several times in front of the class whether I was having 'my truancy day'. That hurt me very much. And the school management also had no understanding for my absences due to illness,” says Angélique about the injustice that happened to her. But what's even worse is that even some of her classmates and even people in her immediate environment think that she's just simulating. “Because no specific disease was found for years, I was repeatedly told: It’s all just in your head. It got to the point where I no longer believed myself. Sometimes I lay in bed at night and wished I wouldn't wake up the next day."
By chance to cannabis self-therapy
At the age of 16, Angélique came into contact with cannabis for the first time through her circle of friends. Out of “youthful curiosity,” as she says. The effect amazes her. While her friends and Joy calm down after a joint, she feels active and energetic for the first time in a long time. Because cannabis dulls her pain and relaxes her muscles: “I finally had the strength to do nice things again – for example meeting friends or singing in my band.”
Angélique begins to treat yourself with CBD and THC. If her medication doesn't work, she smokes a joint. Because the effect occurs faster in an acute pain boost than with other forms of income. Not everyone thinks their self -therapy is good: «My mother comes from Bavaria and the legislation regarding cannabis is very strict. She had reservations about my cannabis consumption and therefore we constantly argue. login also a declared cannabis opponent. In all seriousness, she claimed that my feeling of pain came from cannabis consumption. Cannabis was the only thing that really helped me. So much ignorance and prejudices from the medical side are hair -raising. They prescribe organic medication with countless side effects and then tell you that cannabis make it dependent, » says Angélique still incredulously today. From Bundesbern, she therefore wants the quick legalization of cannabis for everyone - but especially for people with serious illnesses. And better information about the positive effects of cannabis in many illnesses for the doctors and for the population through transparent, independent studies. A takeover of the costs for the (self-) therapy with approved cannabis medication or cannabis by the health insurance companies is also on Angéliques list.
Finally a diagnosis
In 2014 - Angélique is 18 years old - her condition finally received a name: Ehlers-Danlos syndrome (see box). Angélique has the most common subtype: hypermobile EDS, which is almost always associated with great pain for those affected.
But even though Angélique now knows what she is sick with, it doesn't help her - on the contrary. The knowledge of her illness, the constant pain and the lack of understanding at school drive the young woman to burnout. “I was completely physically and mentally exhausted. I took a leave of absence from the cantonal school in the middle of my eleventh year. A short time later I began inpatient rehabilitation in Rheinfelden. Little by little I got better again thanks to psychological support, sports and the new, appreciative environment." It takes Angélique a full year and a half to recover. The burnout and the subsequent therapy helped her to better accept her illness and to put certain bad experiences behind her.
In the summer of 2016, she felt strong enough to go back to school. She decides to change schools and enrolls at the Wettingen technical college. Right from the start, she informs the school management about her illness - and receives a lot of understanding and support. " It felt so good. I was able to start over without false suspicions and accusations. The teachers were nice and so was my class. Three years later I passed my vocational school leaving certificate at this school with 5.8.”
Positively towards the future
Thanks to the long rehab and also thanks to her cannabis self-therapy, Angélique is now able to look forward positively. “I have learned to say without feeling guilty: Today I need a day of rest.” The pain and associated depressive episodes still accompany them. But Angélique would still like to start training as a graphic designer via distance learning soon. She is currently recording an album with her band The Shains , which is scheduled to be released in autumn 2021. «Music is my outlet. In the songs I can talk about my feelings and experiences with a certain distance - e.g. B. also about the bad thoughts from once, when I no longer wanted to live. But fortunately those times are over.”
