It's bad enough that many of us go through the "It's all in your head" phase of the diagnosis process, even though OF COURSE the doctors need to rule out anxiety or other mental causes of symptoms.

But ever after, MS is a disease which causes you to sound like you're making stuff up. That's why I don't generally discuss specific symptoms unless I have a good reason to. Otherwise, conversations tend to go like this:

"What do you mean you were awake all night again? I thought MS made you tired all the time, and you COULDN'T stay awake?"

"What do you mean you're constipated? I thought you said you had control problems?"

"What do you mean you can't manage to do a load of laundry? I thought you said you work full time?"

"What do you mean your legs are like jello? I thought you said your muscles stayed stiff and you couldn't loosen them up?"

"What do you mean you can't follow what I'm saying? You facilitated that meeting last week!"

"What do you mean you're disabled? You look fine to me!"

And the beat goes on...