Having an illness and maintaining friendships

I am finding that one of the hardest things when you become diagnosed with an unusual or even common disorder is you find out who your friends are.  Having to live with something completely unusual, or relatively unheard of, is not easy to begin with, let alone have to face the non-believers, those are the friends that are always the monday morning quarterback, wanna be doctors who feel they all of the sudden possess the knowledge to attempt to diagnose you themselves and offer you advise on treatment and how they would treat it if it were to happen to them.  They also in their own, ignorant manner, will actually take the time to explain to you that you are somehow faking all of this just for attention, pity or handouts.  A scam of sorts.  It makes one wonder if they are just completely out of touch with reality or they just can't accept this has happened to you.  Either way, it is just plain wrong.  It is one thing to have an opinion and suggestions, it is another ball game to be completely ignorant.  The thing about having an illness and posting about it on social media is that those who are the non believers have the power to bully you from the privacy of their own home, from behind a keyboard.

Bullying of any kind, in at any age, in any setting is just plain unacceptable.  Yes there is this thing called free speech, but some choose to take it over the top.  When someone has a disability of any kind, whether it be long term or short term, it is never acceptable to bully.

I chose to write about this because it happened to me.  I am the mother of three and a grandmother, and on Mother's Day, of all days, a few of my so called friends decided it would be funny to post something on social media and make sure I was tagged in it.  I will say the person who posted it was someone who had been my friend for many years, and had sent me some messages recently that were completely uncalled for and out of line.  Not only was the post ignorant, another so called friend made a comment on the post that was completely false.  I actually damn near fell out of my chair upon seeing it.

I really shouldn't have to remind people that not all illnesses are the same.  They may be classified under the same category or even have the same name, but that does not mean they all act the same.

Instead of using energy to focus on negatives, use that energy to focus on positive.

Focus on what you do have and who your real friends are.  The real friends are the ones standing in the background cheering you on.  Weed out the good and the bad people from your life.  Whether you are battling an illness or not, you need positive influence around you.