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FAQ

What camera do you use to take your photos?
I've got a Panasonic Lumix DMC-SZ3, but dream of having a big boy camera one day.


How did you get your lay out?
Honestly, with trial and error and a lot of googling. It took me 3 entire days to get it to look like it does.


What program do you use to edit your photos?
Most of my pictures are unedited, but sometimes they need some work. For that I use the regular things like Paint and Photoshop and for filters I go to photogramio.com/photofilters. I also sometimes just use some Instagram filters, but on a very low percentage, now you can adjust it.


Why is your blog named SickChick?
I suffer from Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, which means I feel ill and tired a lot. It's not as bad as it used to be, but I'm still not perfectly healthy and the disease has left some scars.
I love to write about beauty and fashion and an occasional lifestyle post, but I also think it's important to write about my illness and how I handled it, so I can help other people with CFS or with a similar illness. That's why I wanted that part to be in my blogname, and SickChick was born.


Why did you start your blog?
Honestly, just because it seemed a lot of fun and of course because I wanted to help people who suffer from CFS or a similar illness. I just love the blogging community, and it's so nice to be part of that. I enjoy every part of the process from making content for my blog. Taking pictures, editing, writing, reading comments, checking out other people's blogs, leaving comments. I'm so happy that after 2 years of thinking about starting a blog I finally did it. But I did need to push myself to start blogging by making it part of my school project.


What is CFS?
CFS stands for Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, which is the illness I suffer from. It is not very well known, but that's changing slowly. Before, people who suffer from CFS were said to be overreacting and that nothing was actually wrong with them. CFS patients were also told that their illness was all in their head. Luckily this image about CFS is changing, because it's not true. Not much is proven yet, but investigations are still going on. I personally think CFS starts of as a physical illness, but because it's so life changing it's normal for mental problems to occur. This however is not the cause of CFS, but a result. At least, that's what I personally think, because I've experienced it myself, but things are different for every patient.
If you google CFS you get a list of symptoms, which are of course not so much fun, but really what makes CFS and many other illnesses so bad is the big impact it has on the patient's life. Things that we wouldn't even think about costing energy are now nearly impossible. Walking up the stairs feels like climbing the Mt. Everest. Walking form the couch to the bathroom to take a shower, feels like running a Marathon and more things like that. Everything you once could do, you now can't: sports, clubbing, shopping, in some cases a patient can't even leave his house. This leads to social isolation, which is why CFS causes many friends and family to fall apart. Having an illness such as CFS is described as a mourning process, which is quite logical, because you are basically mourning for the person you once were. However, unlike the death, we as a patient can get back to the person we once were, we can rise again. I've come a far way in that process, but there are still some wounds which need healing and I'm still walking on the road to recovery. If it will ever end, I don't know, but I do know that I will keep on walking, because I don't ever want to fall in that black pit with CFS written on it again.


If there are any questions you have which I haven't answered, feel free to ask them. You can leave a comment or go to my Contact page for my email and social media links.