Everyone knows that handicap parking spots are for people who need a preferred parking, and Julie is one of those people. But, from the outside looking in, it’s easy for an ignorant person to assume that Julie is an able-bodied individual and doesn’t need a handicap parking space. Well, Julie had a nasty encounter with someone who believed just that.

Julie had parked in her handicap spot outside her apartment building, for which she had the appropriate placard to park there and everything. When she went out to her car the next day, she saw a piece of paper on her windshield. After picking it up, Julie was horrified to see a handwritten note obviously left for her. There was only one word scribbled on the paper, but it was enough to make her stomach drop:

“Faker,” it read.

What the disrespectful author of the note didn’t know was that Julie has a medical condition she has struggled with for eight years. You might not be able to see physical signs of it, but it affects her daily life regardless of what you can see with the naked eye.

Julie has an invisible illness called postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome (POTS), a terrifying condition that causes her blood pressure to suddenly drop to dangerously low levels, while her heart rate can skyrocket. Symptoms can arise at any moment, which makes her handicap parking very necessary.

The note was extremely distressful for Julie, who has been disbelieved by family, friends, and even doctors for years. Julie was so upset that she took to social media to talk about what happened to her.

“It was a moment of absolute defeat and frustration,” she said. “To once again be invalidated by someone who doesn’t know me and doesn’t know how hard I fight just to walk out to my car was another slap in the face.”

After her post went viral, Julie was asked to come onto The Doctors to talk about her journey and spread awareness about POTS, and other invisible illnesses that cannot be seen by the naked eye. Watch her interview below to hear her entire inspirational story.