"But by the grace of God, go I"


As you probably know, I suffer from a myriad of health issues from life threatening to annoying. Each day is a constant struggle to keep my home and look after Chris and myself and our little white cat, Xena.

Recently, I read an article about chronically ill bloggers who use the internet to feed their latent Munchausen's disease  The writer who obviously is not suffering an invisible chronic illness, concludes- falsely that we are feeding a desire for attention and sympathy.

This writer had no medical expertise and spoke with the confidence and freedom of a healthy person who knows nothing of the pain every day brings to us who aren't so blessed. It made me both angry and sad.

Anyone who manages to carry on a relatively "normal" life, sacrificing their comfort to serve and love those closest to them, know that the only thing we really desire is compassion. We rarely take delight in our symptoms, in fact the majority of us try very hard to appear as a healthy person in spite of being in pain and discomfort.

Goodness knows, we suffer so much with people judging us unkindly and this simply serves to push us further into depression and loneliness. Especially when our illness is invisible, like fibromyalgia.

Many of us chronically ill people are housebound for the most part, and therefore we feel a certain amount of loneliness and disjointment from society. We simply want to be respected and allowed to simply exist without the stigma of mental disease in the form of Munchausen's.

We bloggers of chronic illness do so because we know the feeling of disenfranchisement in a social sense. We are stripped of our right to live in peace and freedom from bullying ignorant people. 

Writing for those who suffer like we do helps us to reach out to people who would understand the psychological insulation and the sting of being misjudged and categorised as a malingering attention seeker. 

Whilst it is true that we have the LORD to love us unconditionally, it nevertheless hurts us that people are so cruel and instrumental in adding ridiculous labels to us that demoralise us even further.

Chronic illness and pain is a horrid  way to live and those who cast stones at us would do well to thank God that they aren't so afflicted. God has not chosen them to walk the lonely path of chronic illness and they also would do well to remember "but by the grace of God, go I" 

© Glenys Robyn Hicks



Beloved, I pray that you may prosper in all things and be in health, just as your soul prospers. 3 John 1:2

4 comments:

  1. Glenys, I am sorry you are not well for it can grow wearying on the soul. May we all be compassionate towards one another as we truly cannot know, nor understand, the weight of another's burdens.

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    1. Thank you for those kind words, Joanne. Unthinking, critical people usually have no idea of the constant battle to overcome continual pain. The effort of having any life other than the invalid one is very taxing and creates a pain of its own that one has to also deal with. Thanks for taking tea with me today. Be blessed!

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  2. Wow Glenys, that makes me mad too. As a sister with several invisible chronic illnesses (fibromyalgia, chronic pain, trigeminal neuralgia, complicated migraines, degenerative joints, and the list goes on)your words here today are spot on at the heart of the matter. Thank you for sharing.

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    1. Thanks, Paula. People who think we are malingers don't know us very well. We hide our pain and push ourselves to appear stronger and healthier than we really are. It's only a few who enjoy illness, and they unfortunately often have a mental illness that drives them. Most of us don't but are maligned. I am sorry you suffer so much too. It can be a lonely journey, and I think it's good for us chronically ill people to communicate. That's the reason I blog. It makes me bristle that some would call me a sufferer of munhausens..Be blessed!

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Thank you for visiting with me today. I love to hear from you. I may not always be able to reply right away, but I will respond to every comment you leave. Blessings and comfort, Glenys