Disocial Media

 

Since becoming disabled, I’ve had my share of ups and downs.  It seems like both 100 years and 100 hours since my life changing series of events.  In the very beginning of my journey, I was told get “get into therapy” as quickly as I could to stem the wave of depression and provide encouragement for my recovery.  For reasons that I’m not all that sure about even now, I resisted discussing my new normal outside of my very small circle of family.  I’ve never really been one to put my personal life out there for everyone to see. 

Then I did some searching in social media for groups that my new body might be able to relate to.  There were more than I thought, so I tried a couple.  It has been amazing what others have done for me and what we do for each other.  It’s not just that we all share just a physical issue either, we share the struggles, the tears and the laughs we need to encourage each other in our times of need.  I have been in several groups during my life that have bonded me to others closely enough to be considered family.  I’ve never bonded as quickly as I have with some of these people.  They are literally from all over the world, but our challenges don’t share a language, or geographic zone or even a geopolitical standing, we just share humanity for each other. 

It almost makes me think that if everyone could see the struggles in others first, wouldn’t we be more tolerant and compassionate with each other?  After all, aren’t we all made up of struggles…and worries…and insecurities?  Actually, we’re not so different from each other after all.  You hope that we all get the latest in care and methods due to the severities of our injuries.  This is not the case, the only commonality we all seem to share is that the people with the most money tend to get the best treatment and this is a shame. 

We are talking about a group of individuals that have extreme situations to deal with.  We all have different doctors/physical therapists/prosthetists and support people, so information is critical to our recoveries.  It’s something to see how different the directions and recovery times have been for those even with very similar situations.  Healthcare is not typical across our ranks and nether is our level of care.  Maybe one day, the world will see patients for their challenges instead of their socioeconomic groups, but until then, there is always social media and the hope of a smile, a laugh or just a short time without being disabled…I think that’s pretty nice.  So thank you to the much-maligned social media.  Be well!