By Sarah Shafer, as told to Stephanie Watson
I began having Crohn’s disease symptoms of as far back as age 13 or 14. At the time, I tried to hide my condition. The teenage years are already awkward. The last thing I wanted was for my friends and family to know how often I ran to the bathroom and how urgently I had to go.
I did eventually tell my family and I saw a doctor about my symptoms. The doctor thought it was stress-related. He assumed that I had ulcers.
When I was 25, I developed abdominal pain so severe that I…
