 Hi, I'm Johnny Erickson Tada, and several of my friends have a very severe disabling condition, but you'd never know it, not at least to look at them. That is, until you see them rubbing their elbows and wrists. What's the disability? It's lupus, and it's a chronic disease of the immune system. With lupus, the body's immune system loses its ability to make antibodies in a normal way, thus assaulting the body's own joints.