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The War Was Underway Before the Alarms Went Off
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⚠️ Please read with care: This blog shares personal, sometimes painful experiences. My intention is to support and speak honestly not to harm. I’m not a professional, just someone who understands how hard it can get. If you're struggling, you're not alone please reach out for professional help.
The War Was Underway Before the Alarms Went Off
You thought the first tremor, the numb hand, the fog in your skull was day one. Hate to break it to you it wasn’t. That was just the siren. The war had already started years earlier, deep inside the grey matter, while you were busy pretending to be normal.
Researchers at UCSF have found evidence that MS starts its attack years before anyone’s diagnosed. Seven bloody years before, to be precise. In blood samples from people who later developed MS, they found a surge in a protein called myelin oligodendrocyte glycoprotein (MOG) the stuff that insulates your nerve fibres quietly going rogue long before the body noticed. Then, about a year later, neurofilament light chain (NfL) levels rose meaning the nerves themselves were fraying. Translation: the fire started in your brain, and the smoke didn’t reach the surface until years later.
They also found immune system markers like IL-3 flaring up, signalling an underground war between your body and your brain. By the time you felt that wobble, that eye pain, that fatigue, the troops were already deep in your territory. You didn’t “catch” MS you’d been hosting the siege.
And this is the bit that hits like a sledgehammer: the NHS and most systems still don’t test for these biomarkers. We’ve got the science, but not the infrastructure. The bow’s strung, but the arrow’s still sitting on the table. It’s a familiar feeling, isn’t it? You’re the battlefield, and the generals haven’t turned up yet.
Here’s what it means, from the trenches:
- That weird nerve twitch two years before diagnosis? Not “stress”. Early recon.
- That exhaustion that made you nap through life? Not “laziness”. Structural sabotage.
- That optic flare-up before anyone took you seriously? Not imagination. First blood.
By the time you heard the diagnosis, the enemy was already halfway through the walls.
I’ve said this before your brain is a fortress. The immune system dug under it, mined the foundations, and by the time you heard the first bang, the tunnels were already dug. Who were you during those years? The healthy one? The waiting one? Or the becoming one unknowingly rewiring for survival, even as your body was being redrafted?
Here’s what to do (no false hope, just the truth):
- Write everything down. Every odd symptom, every foggy day, every time your balance betrays you. The journal isn’t drama it’s evidence.
- Ask your neurologist about NfL and MOG testing. It’s not standard, but some private labs do it. The future starts with questions.
- Spread awareness. MS doesn’t just start it evolves in silence. Let’s stop calling it “sudden”. It’s stealthy.
My takeaway: The damage was never the start of the story. It was the middle of a long, invisible campaign. And knowing that gives us an edge not a cure, but a strategy. You fight smarter when you know how the enemy works.
I’m Warlock Dark part meat, part storm, part Wi-Fi dropout and I’m here to remind you: The war in your brain began before the alarms went off. But you’re still standing. And that makes you the weapon.
Warlock Dark
I write in ink and fury, in breath and broken bone.
Through storm and silence, I survive. That is the crime and the miracle.
