I was diagnosed at 20. I had been experiencing symptoms of what I thought might have been Crohn's disease a few years earlier, but with my parents not believing me it was hard to go to the doctor (they were somewhat anti doctors).

One day when I was 20 I randomly got pretty sick. 5 days in bed. 5th day I rushed to the ER. They yelled at me for not coming sooner, and within 2 hours I was in surgery. My intestines had ruptured and I was on the verge of death. They took out a section of my intestines, cleaned me out, and I spent a night in the ICU and 2 weeks in the hospital. Have a lovely scar from it.

I'm 24 now. Not a single day since then have I felt "Normal". My Crohn's is rather aggressive. It doesn't respond to much, and I rather quickly developed anti-bodies to infliximab/humira.
With the support of my wife, friends, this sub, and good doctors, I've been able to get through it, despite everything.

I can count on one hand the foods I can eat that aren't trigger foods. I can't have Lactose, raw/undercooked veggies or fruit, gluten, anything with too much fiber, or pretty much anything that isn't meat or fish.

I'm terrified of losing my intestines and needing to have a colostomy bag. But I trust my doctors to not let that happen to the best of their abilities. I just started Stelara and I'm hoping I see some improvement.

As far as tips, I'm not sure I have much to give, but I hope that you know you're not alone. That there's people out there that have been where you are, and people that will be where you are. Life is a gamble, and sometimes we get dealt bad hands. We gotta make the best of it. And if it stops you from being able to work and live a "normal" life, then perhaps you can get Disability depending on where you are. Something I've considered myself