When Chronic Illness Goes Public

The world is getting a taste of what people with Chronic Illnesses have been living with for most of their lives, and it isn’t pretty.

Chronic Illness and autoimmune disorders affect about two-thirds of Americans TODAY, yet their diseases are largely ignored by society because they are often hard to spot on the surface. This leads people with these kinds of issues to feel invalidated by their peers, doctors, public discourse, and even the social sphere at large.

Put bluntly — it makes people feel HELLA alone.

So, what happens when the feelings often reserved to a subset of the population “go viral?” The answer is really simple. It blows the lid right off the little bubbles we’ve all built for ourselves and brings us together to fight a common foe — an infectious disease that excludes no one.

In the age of the internet, viral spread of information isn’t such a bad thing (although it can be, when used to disseminate disinformation).

But REAL, tested, and unilateral information “going viral” can unify us under a common goal, joke, meme, or even a novel idea that could totally shift our society for the better. And while this might be the most unpleasant thing we’ve seen take this route of being blasted through our airwaves (literally) in about 100 years; it might also be the most important viral information yet.

My hope: May this virus put an end all the questions and suspicions — illness of any kind, chronic or not, is not made up. It’s very, very real. It’s an undeniable and lived reality of daily emotional stress and social isolation, coupled with little to no income, debt, feelings of helplessness, lack of control, and sometimes even depression — which is a disease on it’s own and can lead to other costly public issues like addition, suicide, and a decreased ability to contribute to the economy.

And that coupled stuff: that’s the stuff we as a society have CHOSEN to allow. We’ve baked it into an already salty-ass cake — being sick. And it’s just adding insult to injury, if you ask me.

Now, with the outbreak of the Coronavirus, particularly in America, nearly everybody, everywhere from “sea to shining sea” knows how this feels and how it’s playing out in terms of a clear lack of preparedness, even though we knew what was coming our way — regardless of the Chinese Government’s efforts to conceal public records about the virus back in January. We (our elected government) should have started preparing then but we didn’t and instead we’ve witnessed all hell breaking loose. Everyone has seen the nurses making their own face masks because of hospital shortages and wiped out convenience stores. We’ve all seen the people out there expressing the ugliest side of capitalism at the expense of the elderly, sickly, and even the health care professionals playing the best they can with a shitty hand. They are literally shooting for the moon.

People of all stripes are finally starting to see that when it comes to access to reliable health care, the system is rigged and flawed, at best.

It’s designed to serve people with money and even those people feel the strain of the bills — whether they can afford them or not. No one likes spending hard-earned money on something they didn’t choose let alone something that is ridiculously overpriced compared to other countries’ medical markets and to lesser positive outcomes. And just because you can afford it, doesn’t make you any more immune to all the other feelings associated with falling sick with Covid-19 or anything else.

Like: isolation, disbelief from your friends and family, or circumstantial total WTF moments, over and over again. These are feelings chronic sufferers have known for YEARS. And this pandemic is finally sounding the alarm. FOR ALL OF US.

No longer are we simply asked to believe the anecdote of a person who has felt the travesty of not being heard, tested, or treated (long before “social distancing” was even a thing) to recognize the issues pervasive to our health care system.

Or, as Marianne Williamson so perfectly said, our “sick care” system in this country.

People who have been suffering all on their own know the price that social distance and unnatural human disassociation cost them personally and financially. And, now everyone else knows it too. It’s no longer invisible.

There’s a reason it’s illegal to not have car insurance and we don’t question it — we can see it. It’s not invisible nor hiding in the shadows of isolated homes. You know the likelihood you have of a car accident because you see them nearly every time you drive your car and when it happens to you or someone you know, the damage is obvious. It affects their daily lives until their car is “healed.” And if someone doesn’t have insurance — what happens? They get fined and those fines go towards improving road safety and paying down the bills of the accident that was just that — an accident; no one’s choice.

Now, this is actually a terrible system too, but it’s more thought-out than our healthcare system AND due to the danger cars pose to individuals — the two systems together are basically like a positive Covid-19 patient shaking hands with an 80 year old-woman, someone going through chemo, or a person with asthma.

It’s not fucking cool and above anything, it could be deadly.

The harsh truth is: We are so concerned with what we all have on a material level… like cars and money and things (so many things) that we’ve forgotten the importance of unilaterally ensuring the greatest gift we’ve all been given — our lives.

We, as human beings, are designed to connect with each other, hear each other, validate each other, hold, respect, and honor each other NO MATTER WHAT and when that doesn’t happen for an extended period of time it feels TERRIBLE. It feels lonely, numbing, and frankly unsafely “socially distancing,” which is the opposite of what we as a society are meant to do.

We are meant to create connections, find collective meaning, and build extraordinary things.

However, we certainly can’t build anything extraordinary when we’re thinking in ordinary, limited, and biased ways that only take into account one narrow perspective — our own. Alternatively, when we widen the unique lenses we all have on the world and share in others lived reality without diminishing or invalidating their feelings; we are able to bring in multiple perspectives. We can tap into critical and constructive ways of thinking. We breed authentic intelligence and unity. We become all powerful, for the benefit of all and at the expense of none because we are able lift each other up with this kind of power instead constantly tearing each other down.

Knowledge, perspective, and critical, constructive thought ALWAYS manage to point to the truth.

What’s even harsher truth? Suffering can happen to you. You are not immune. Suffering is a fact of life. And now, it’s happening to everyone (whether you’re feeling it a little bit or a lot).

SO, what does all of this mean and why is this important?

It means that the problem is no longer abstract; it’s the opposite. It’s now EXTREMELY palpable to too many people. Just think of the seven healthy individuals in New Jersey that got together for a family dinner and now four of them are dead. They are FEELING this in ways that most of us are only FEARING through our minds and screens and that’s affecting our health negatively, too.

Here’s the thing — fear feels very real and can wreak havoc on our bodies but love (even in the face of fear) is WAY MORE real and has the power to heal this mess, once and for all.

Love heals everything. Love erases ignorance. Love creates possibility. And real love, rooted in conscious connection rather than material addictions (the two are very closely linked on a psychological level), makes us see SO clearly.

Yes, it’s very sad that we have had to come this far to see the forest through the trees, but there’s no more time to waste lamenting.

What now, might you ask? What comes next?

Well, first things first: I think we can all agree nothing will ever be “normal” again and something has to give. These are surely dangerous and tragic times for those who have lost lives or loved ones through the cracks of our rickety public health system, not only due to Covid-19. Since we’re being honest, let’s take a moment to note that number of deaths due to Covid-19 are NOTHING compared to the amount of people that die every day due chronic illness. This is a pre-existing condition of our “sickcare system” that was simply exacerbated by the lack of preparedness on behalf of this “great” nation due to recent public health budget slashes (seriously, you want to click that link — the first couple sentences are JARRING) and even further dismantling of our Public Health in 2018 by the White House in the removal the head of Pandemics that would have ACTUALLY prepared us for this mess.

Nevertheless, we must not forget — while still dangerous and tragic, these times are also illuminating so much that was often opaque until sorely met.

Never again will that be the case, for anyone... Go ahead, tell me “sheltering in place” hasn’t affected you in some way?

Unless you’re totally heartless and incapable of feeling empathy — AKA a socio- or psychopath (which BTW, sociopaths, psychopaths, etc. are MADE in early childhood trauma and not so much “born that way”) — you have to have felt something watching the world as we know it come to a full on halt and ricocheted (some irreparable) economic damage around the world, along with it’s assault on our bodies.

Lucky for us, we have an election this year!

Imagine all the things we could do if we had used all that money we spent on prisons, weapons, and warships (that are now used being turned into floating hospitals) on mental health, research, early childhood care, and public health BEFORE a disaster struck — OH MY! There would be no such thing as shortages. There would be no such thing as egomaniacal-toilet-paper-shoppers. There would be no such thing as sold out gun stores across the country, as if people are preparing for a potential CIVIL WAR! Like, are you fucking kidding me?! You’re not going to kill the virus with a gun, bro.

REAL TALK — right now, in America, we’re getting exactly what we are paying for…

No one can ever again say that they are untouched or unaffected by the vulnerability crafted into our heartless healthcare system; as we all stand by and watch how the weaknesses of one have essentially become a contagion to us all.

Ironically, this virus could be a ‘blessing in disguise’ in that it is (reluctantly) holding our attention for long enough that we can’t help but see all that is broken.

If you can’t see it, you’re not looking and if you’re not looking, I really hate to say it but: you’re a part of the problem. I don’t say this to hurt your feelings. I say this because I love you and I want to see you be what I know you can be — a civically responsible and engaged member of society.

I mean, what’s your excuse to ignore facts now? You have the time. Don’t believe me? Click the links I have put into this post and start reading! I beg you, step into your power and be a part of the solution. We are being asked to fix this, NOW — not later because there might not be a later. Your freedom to stand up and make another choice for you and your neighbors is fleeting and fragile.

All I gotta say is — Karma can be a timely and tricky bitch, huh?

So what to do? How to do it? And if not now, when? When we’ve forgotten the pain? When we’ve buried all the bodies and their stories? When it’s no longer “viral?” Well, then it will surely be too late.

These are the questions we all need to ask ourselves. They are really important and vitally relevant...

Do you ever want to feel like this again?

Do you want your neighbor to feel like this?

Do you want your family member to feel like this?

Do you want to know that if we do nothing, if we allow this critical time to pass and make zero changes in the way we approach public health in this country, that millions of people will go back into the shadows and continue to suffer when this is “all over?”

Do you want to know that it will inadvertently be your fault because you chose to look the other way when you could have saved us?

Don’t you want to be the guardian angel we’ve all been praying for?

I might be speaking for myself when I say this but — I, 100%, do not want to see or know the next phase of this dystopian reality we’re currently living in and could easily double-down on.

And it is my sincerest hope that I am not alone in that. I truly believe that if you are asking yourself these questions, wholeheartedly, beyond the level of your fears that are handedly controlled by your Ego — the answer will be a firm “NO.”

NO — no one deserves to suffer like this.

NO — no one should feel like a second class citizen.

NO — no one should wait endlessly to MAYBE OR MAYBE NOT get the treatment that they need to live a healthy and fulfilled life.

NO — no one should have to work through their pain.

NO — no one should be given sub-par treatment due to how much money is in their wallet.

NO — no one should go into debt and have all prospect of a future destroyed because of a disease they did not choose to have.

NO — no one should feel distant from the people that should be closest to them because of something that is completely outside of their control, largely hard to detect, and even harder to explain to someone who has never felt that way.

And NO — no one’s boss should determine the quality of their health care outcomes or options.

We all deserve better.

Your spirit already knows this.

Your spirit is always feeling everyone else’s pain whether you take the time to notice it or not because empathy is a natural human trait that can only be suppressed and never denied. And we now know from empirical data on our mighty yet fragile nervous systems — suppression causes things to fester and only leads to “dis-ease” throughout the body, which is the FOUNDATION of disease. Stress makes your body do crazy things, so why on Earth would we make our “HEALTHCARE” system SO STRESSFUL?

On the other hand, liberation, release of judgement, forgiveness, a sense of safety, and open mindedness… all lead to ease, healing, and an overall sense of happiness. The choice of whether suppression or liberation dictate the structure of our healthcare system is ultimately ours. You make this choice with how you cast your vote, or lack thereof. Just know that if you’re looking at this major life choice as game with an “us” versus “them” scenario — we will all ultimately lose.

If you’re still looking for proof of this, look around.

The proof is in this moment of total “lockdown” and economic disaster of epic proportions that we are sharing in, right now.

The choice is really simple: either you’re in it to win it for everyone or you’re in it for yourself.

And the latter only and inherently weakens the immune system (on a micro- and macro-socio-economic level) to be susceptible to absolutely everything and anything, foreign and domestic viruses alike. Because, even if you’re at the top now, there’s nothing keeping you from falling to the bottom. You’re just one chronic illness away, which data proves you’re likely to get when you suppress your humanness for long enough.

SOOOOOOO, now that we all (hopefully) are feeling all the feels that there all to feel (because we finally have the TIME to), there should be no two ways about it — we ALL need to take care of each other.

Why? Because…

No one wants to be helplessly sick and poor because they’re sick.

No one wants their family members to feel like this.

Everyone hates premiums.

Everyone hates co-pays.

No one wants hidden fees or out of pocket expenses.

So let’s end them.

Let’s make a better plan.

Let’s come together and help each other out because WHEN (not IF) our country is hit with another crisis, the bill would already be paid.

Insurance and treatment would a guaranteed rather an a looming question mark.

And above all, we could finally focus on what really matters — LIVES OVER COSTS. PEOPLE OVER PROFITS. HEALTH OVER WEALTH.

If no one needlessly suffers, we will all be better off for it on all three levels of this existence — mind, body, and spirit. We will be constantly assured and reminded that WE ARE an inextricably linked community and EVERY life matters… And no one will have to foot the bill that ICU’s and medical debt pile onto our country every day, anyway. Check that link — read reason #1 for our National Debt. I ain’t making this shit up, y’all.