My Untold Story: Invisible Illnesses

Join RIT Libraries for personal conversations with members of the RIT community about invisible illnesses and their impact on everyday life. From 1:00-2:00pm, storytellers will share their experiences in a small-group setting; attendees are welcome to ask questions.Light refreshments will be served from 2:00-2:30pm where reflection and deeper, one-on-one conversations are encouraged. Drop-ins welcome.Storytellers:Nicole Watson is the Assistant Softball Coach at RIT and a former NCAA athlete who is in recovery from an eating disorder. After struggling with an eating disorder for five years and going through treatment, she learned that her underlying anxiety was part of the issue. She then learned how to manage both mental illnesses. As the founder of Hope for Athletes and a Body Project facilitator, Watson shares her story to educate others about eating disorders, provide guidance and hope to those going through treatment, and help lift the stigma of mental illness.Matt Altobelli is a fourth year psychology student at RIT who struggled with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) following eight years of military service. He is the author of the memoir, The American Nightmare and the Art of Failure: Life with PTSD (published by iUniverse, 2018). Altobelli plans to pursue a Ph.D. in Clinical or Cognitive Psychology with the goal of helping trauma victims recover and find a life worth living.Jessica Hanna is the owner of several autoimmune diseases, all of which went undiagnosed for many years. At 23, it was Celiac disease; during a pregnancy at 28, it was pruritic urticarial papules and plaques of pregnancy (PUPPPS). She graduated to lupus, and eventually Type 1 diabetes at the age of 34. Hanna is a mom, wife, photographer, and aspiring web designer with two golden retrievers, a fat cat, and four chickens. She lives in Macedon with her husband of 7 years, Tom, and their kids, Oliver (6) and Mariah (4).