Chronically Toxic
As a person that got pulled into the hell we call Long Covid, I find it very difficult to follow the developments and the research from social media. Every day I have to scroll through a lot of desperation, hopelessness, and anger to get a single piece of useful knowledge. I know that they are fully within their rights to share as they'd like on their profiles, but they become a tsunami on my Twitter feed when ten of them appear one after the other.
It then becomes a challenge to emotionally shield myself from taking on everybody's feelings and just focus on the information that I'm after: Are there any new developments? Any new research papers that point to something? Any new medications that people are trying? Anything that I've missed that could help?
And on top of this, you have to deal with their toxicity as they project their fears, their sorrow, and their anger on everything and everyone.
The Hypocracy!
The latest example is, a TV presenter suffers from heart issues and alopecia, and she's been told it's because of stress. And the Long-Covid community thinks, obviously, this is Long-Covid. They wrote posts after posts about how this is caused by Covid, how she's been gaslit, her symptoms have been minimised by being labelled as 'stress'.
The hypocrisy here is astonishing. They are doing the exact same thing they blame people of doing: Minimising another person's suffering without much knowledge and based on pure conjecture, and pressuring them into accepting it's something else.
Why? Because they know better. Because they suffer, they have more experience. Because they suffer, they have the say and you don't. It's all Covid-induced and it's being ignored by everyone.
To be honest, after a while they read like hate speech.
Chronic Ilnesses Aren’t New
Let's get one thing clear: People were becoming chronically ill way before Covid was a thing. Stress-induced autoimmune diseases are a thing, and alopecia is one of the most common ones. So is having heart issues, as continuous stress increases the blood pressure and wreaks havoc on your sympathetic nervous system. Your body is constantly in fight or flight mode, and there's no surprise when it could even start attacking itself.
The LC community who are reading this, I know what you're thinking: It's POTS, right? Right? What else can it be? It's just Covid-induced POTS, right?
No. People have been having these illnesses since the beginning of time. People used to drop dead like flies just because they stubbed their toe and it got infected. ME/CFS has been a thing for decades, and people can get it from flu. And no, ME/CFS is not the same thing as Long-Covid. They overlap, but also with stress-induced autoimmune conditions.
Just because you're chronically ill of something doesn't mean that everything is caused by the same thing. You need to take off your Covid-coloured glasses and just let people figure their own shit out. Stop giving unsolicited (and frankly, unrealistic) advice. If they need it they would find you and ask you. You're making so much noise that even aliens can find you.
Not everyone that got Covid is going to get Long-Covid. Not with one or ten infections. Some people will, but maybe they'll recover after three months. Maybe they'll die. Maybe they'll end up just like you. But you putting pressure on people just because you're suffering is unfair to everyone. Let them be.
Life isn't fair, and it was never meant to be.