Taking the high road…

Welcome to the National Health Blog Post Month Challenge hosted by WEGO Health.  Every day during the month of November I will be writing a new blog post related to health and living with a chronic illness based on given prompts provided by WEGO Health.

Today’s prompt reads:

Taking the High Road: Write about a time you had to be the bigger person and take the high road.

A while ago, I was having a conversation with somebody online, and they enquired about my life with my health condition.  As I explained the symptoms that I experience, the person responded “Surely, dizziness isn’t that bad to live with.  I’ve experienced it a few times, and it wasn’t that bad…”  At first, I was astounded, and really wasn’t sure how to respond.  Then, I got really angry, and wanted to shout (or in this case type!) “It’s not that bad!  You try living with this constantly and then try telling me it isn’t that bad!”

As much as I wanted to, however, I didn’t and took the high road, and instead responded “Well, I am glad your experience with dizziness wasn’t bad”.  That was the end of the conversation, and instead opted for safer conversations such as books that we both like, and films and so on.  Looking back on the conversation, and after having conversations with other people suffering with chronic illnesses, I realised, that although the person’s comments were not said to be malicious or hurtful, although I found them to be just that; it is very difficult however extremely difficult to imagine  the severity of any symptom that a person suffers with, unless you have experienced it yourself.

Perhaps, when people, whose words we perceive to be hurtful, in relation to our illness, we need to take a step back and instead of shouting and hitting back at their words, we can take instead it take as an opportunity for educating others’ about our particular health conditions, and becoming an advocate for everyone who lives with the condition.  It provides an excellent opportunity to really discuss with others’ what it is like to live with the illness, and to dispel popular myths that exist in the media and wider community.