Recently on the forum one of our lovely members, chronic-cuteness, brought up something I find incredibly important, raising awareness.
For a lot of us our conditions aren't as well known, and the symptoms are often more or less invisible to the world around us. This is an incredibly hard thing to deal with when trying to explain to our friends and family exactly what our diagnosis means for us, when they're so caught up on the fact that we can't possibly have something serious because we're too young, or too healthy, or even too pretty, to be sick.
Of course we all know that's completely rubbish. The majority of chronic health conditions don't discriminate. Everyone is just as likely to be living with a chronic health condition as everyone else. In 2012 it was determined that about half the adult population of the U.S. was living with a chronic health condition. Of course that includes any type of chronic health condition, whether or not they're debilitating. So for those of us living with health conditions that make it hard to imagine doing things in a normal manner despite our illness, we often feel alone, and as if no one understands us.
I don't know about the rest of you, but I believe it's time we work on raising awareness for ourselves. As young people living with chronic health conditions we're often looked at as lazy by those around us, when in reality we're spending our days fighting our conditions for some sense of normalcy in our lives. It's time for the world to recognize us for who we are. One of the number one ways we can do this is by making the awareness of our conditions a priority for ourselves. If we aren't taking ourselves seriously, no one else is going to either.
I want to challenge you to share something about your illness on whatever your preferred choice of social media is with the hashtag #imspooniestrong. Even if you just tweet out a link to a website with information about your condition, it's a start. You don't have to share your whole story with the world if you're not ready or comfortable with it. But we have to start somewhere!
What are your ideas for helping to raise awareness about chronic illnesses? Share in the comments!
For a lot of us our conditions aren't as well known, and the symptoms are often more or less invisible to the world around us. This is an incredibly hard thing to deal with when trying to explain to our friends and family exactly what our diagnosis means for us, when they're so caught up on the fact that we can't possibly have something serious because we're too young, or too healthy, or even too pretty, to be sick.
Of course we all know that's completely rubbish. The majority of chronic health conditions don't discriminate. Everyone is just as likely to be living with a chronic health condition as everyone else. In 2012 it was determined that about half the adult population of the U.S. was living with a chronic health condition. Of course that includes any type of chronic health condition, whether or not they're debilitating. So for those of us living with health conditions that make it hard to imagine doing things in a normal manner despite our illness, we often feel alone, and as if no one understands us.
I don't know about the rest of you, but I believe it's time we work on raising awareness for ourselves. As young people living with chronic health conditions we're often looked at as lazy by those around us, when in reality we're spending our days fighting our conditions for some sense of normalcy in our lives. It's time for the world to recognize us for who we are. One of the number one ways we can do this is by making the awareness of our conditions a priority for ourselves. If we aren't taking ourselves seriously, no one else is going to either.
I want to challenge you to share something about your illness on whatever your preferred choice of social media is with the hashtag #imspooniestrong. Even if you just tweet out a link to a website with information about your condition, it's a start. You don't have to share your whole story with the world if you're not ready or comfortable with it. But we have to start somewhere!
What are your ideas for helping to raise awareness about chronic illnesses? Share in the comments!