EP 78 - What Invisible Illness Does to Marriage, Motherhood & the Mental Load

More Than Reality with Adam and Danielle

Adam and Danielle Busby

Relationships, Society & Culture, After Shows, Kids & Family, Parenting, Tv & Film

4.7 • 589 Ratings

🗓️ 9 April 2026

⏱️ 56 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

In this episode, we’re opening up about something that’s been affecting our family in a very real way… the invisible mental and physical load of chronic illness. Danielle shares what it’s actually like living with autoimmune issues, hormone imbalances, and chronic pain—and how it impacts everything from motherhood to marriage to mental health. From the outside, everything can look completely normal. But behind the scenes, there are days filled with fatigue, brain fog, guilt, and frustration—and it’s not always easy for others to understand. We also talk about: • How invisible illness affects your marriage and communication • The mental load moms carry that no one sees • What it feels like to “look fine” but not be okay • The tension, guilt, and growth that comes with it • How to support your spouse when you don’t fully understand what they’re going through • Leaning on faith, grace, and communication in the hardest seasons If you or someone you love is walking through something similar, just know… you are not alone. ⸻ 🧺 Cozy Earth Callout And thanks to Cozy Earth for sponsoring this episode. If you’re looking for the perfect Mother’s Day gift, their robes and slippers are next-level comfort. 👉 Go to cozyearth.com and use code MORETHAN for 20% off Plus, enjoy a 100-night sleep trial and 10-year warranty. ⸻ 💧 Cure Hydration Callout This episode is also sponsored by Cure Hydration. Hydration isn’t just about drinking water—it’s about your body actually absorbing it. Cure is plant-based, has no added sugar, and is based on the same science as IV hydration therapy. 👉 Get 20% off at curehydration.com with code MORETHAN Welcome to "More Than Reality" with Adam and Danielle Busby, the proud parents of 6 beautiful daughters—5 of whom made history as the first set of all-female quintuplets born in the United States. After 10 incredible seasons of our hit TV show OutDaughtered on TLC, we’re taking you behind the scenes of our extraordinary life like never before. Join us as we navigate the joys and challenges of raising a family of 8, share unfiltered stories from our journey, and explore everything from parenting tips to personal growth. It’s life, love, laughter, and a whole lot of chaos—because our reality is so much more than what you’ve seen on screen.Tune in each week for a candid look into our world, where the real adventure begins when the cameras stop rolling. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	This episode today might get me in a little bit of trouble.
0:03.2	Last week's episode was pretty long and it was filled with a lot of information.
0:07.1	And I mentioned this week we would talk about kind of like the mental load that you don't
0:15.3	necessarily see what autoimmune and like health issues, hormones, like thyroid, all of that, like how it impacts your
0:23.0	life, your mental state and, you know, even down to like your parenting, your marriage and
0:27.2	everybody around you for sure.
0:33.2	This is more than reality podcast, where we dive into all things, faith, family, and marriage, and share that there is so much more than the reality that you see on the surface.
0:46.8	Welcome to More Than Reality with Adam and Danielle Busby.
0:52.5	Hello, hello.
0:55.9	We are back.
0:57.4	We're the reality podcast.
1:00.2	This is Danielle and Adam Boothby.
1:02.1	And this is episode 77.
1:03.5	Did you just have to look?
1:03.8	Yeah.
1:04.9	I was just looking at it.
1:06.1	I was almost positive.
1:09.4	This episode today might get me in a little bit of trouble.
1:27.5	Honestly, same. But we're going to talk about something that we've walked through. That hasn't really been that easy. We're just going to jump right into it, huh? It's probably going to be a long episode. We're not going to give like a little update of like where we've been in the past few days. Yeah, let's do that next episode. Next episode? Yeah.
1:27.9	Okay.
1:28.8	This one last week's... Never mind.
1:29.4	Scratch that.
	...

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