Public service announcement: Let's all get along

I wrote another post today that I planned to put up, but I felt this needed to be said.

I woke up tonight to some upsetting news.  I have talked at length about how hard it is when people don’t believe you are sick.  I am disheartened to hear that this recently happened within the mast cell community.  Like, seriously disgusted.

One of the weird things about being part of a community like ours is that it sometimes gets competitive.  Like people want to be seen as sicker, or whatever.  These behaviors breed distrust until eventually people insist that someone is lying.  And then that person feels like they need to defend themselves, which is absurd.

From where I’m sitting, the only thing the accused needs to do is wait for an apology for the accuser.  This makes me so mad because we all have relationships of varying depths with each other.  If a person publicly states that they have X condition, but privately and among friends admits that they have X condition, with Y and Z complications, they are not lying to you.  We have a right to privacy.  We have a right to be believed, especially in our own community.

Please be kind to each other.  We have enough to deal with without this nonsense.