I shouldn’t have to share this, but society hasn’t evolved compassionately enough for the need to not exist (and goodness have I and many advocating patients experienced this reality since we began advocating in spring 2020).
As most of you know, I’ve had a tough week due to my health at the hands of #LongCovid. I shared the details via my stories, and since emotionally I don’t have the capacity to restate, I’ve saved them within the “long covid 9” reel on my page, for those curious to see a glimpse of what the challenges are that us patients speak of.
I’m battling returned severe depression as a result of my 21 month fight with this illness and recent events, and have been working to consciously pull myself from that space, as a choice that I - and all battling such experiences - have to make daily.
[Growth isn’t supposed to be easy; if it was then we wouldn’t truly learn what we were intended to learn. The hurt is impactful, and our ability to reflect as observers on our own life - momentarily removing ourselves from the role of active participant or victim - is what helps us grow as needed.]
But what I didn’t expect or deserve - and what I certainly didn’t need - while I was in so much emotional and physical pain, was to be assaulted by strangers online.
This certainly isn’t the first time that ignorant keyboard warriors have spewed venom (and utter nonsense) at me or others for educating about this new illness (or the many #postviral illnesses in existence long before Long COVID). And while another with a different colored heart might’ve screenshot the hate and attacks and put them on blast publicly…that’s not healthy for anyone.
So instead, here’s what hate channeled into a positive can look like, sharing the reality of the Long Hauler - and of all infection-initiated chronically ill persons (#MECFS, #POTS, #ChronicLyme, etc.) - which includes an external world that inflicts pain onto our already painful internal one.
While I’ve long said that I wouldn’t wish this (or any) post-viral chronic illness on anyone, some will unfortunately enable their own infections, and to them I say:
I and we tried to help.
You’re still welcome here with open arms.