this post was submitted on 19 Jul 2026
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Chronic Illness

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A community/support group for chronically ill people. While anyone is welcome, our number one priority is keeping this a safe space for chronically ill people.

This is a support group, not a place for healthy people to share their opinions on disability.

Rules

  1. Be excellent to each other

  2. Absolutely no ableism. This includes harmful stereotypes: lazy/freeloaders etc

  3. No quackery. Does an up-to date major review in a big journal or a major government guideline come to the conclusion you’re claiming is fact? No? Then don’t claim it’s fact. This applies to potential treatments and disease mechanisms.

  4. No denialism or minimisation This applies challenges faced by chronically ill people.

  5. No psychosomatising psychosomatisation is a tool used by insurance companies and governments to blame physical illnesses on mental problems, and thereby saving money by not paying benefits. There is no concrete proof psychosomatic or functional disease exists with the vast majority of historical diagnoses turning out to be biomedical illnesses medicine has not discovered yet. Psychosomatics is rooted in misogyny, and consisted up until very recently of blaming women’s health complaints on “hysteria”.

  6. Respect the Group’s Purpose. It’s a support forum for people with chronic illness to vent and share and talk together. It’s not a place for healthy people to come and give their opinions.

Did your post/comment get removed? Before arguing with moderators consider that the goal of this community is to provide a safe space for people suffering from chronic illness. Moderation may be heavy handed at times. If you don’t like that, find or create another community that prioritises something else.

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I read somewhere that the average time before diagnosis of POTS is 5 years, and people need to see 7 different medical professionals. I'm sure CFS and Fibro and other chronic illness are similar, or even worse.

Every person I've met with chronic illness has been mistrustful of the medical system, and for good reason. They've been told their symptoms are "psychosomatic", depression, anxiety, laziness, deconditioning, etc… Gaslighting and poor treatment seems to be the norm. I wouldn't be surprised if most people in our situation have medical trauma; being defined as: "psychological or emotional symptoms associated with negative medical experiences."

I know that, personally, I hate going to doctors, especially new ones.

  • I expect it to go poorly.
  • I don't feel like they will believe me about my symptoms, or they will ignore what I say.
  • I don't trust that they even know anything about my conditions or their treatments.
  • Often the treatments given to me are actively harmful.
  • If I disagree with them on anything, it turns into an argument.

The worst part is, I'm usually correct. I'm not sure you can even classify it as trauma, because that implies it's not continuing to happen. If anything, it's a wise adaptation to be wary.

You might argue that everyday family doctors aren't equipped to treat us. Often I'm treated like a hot potato, tossed between specialists because I'm nobody's problem. There is a huge gap in the medical field for knowledge about chronic health conditions. The analogy that stuck with me was: "they can set a broken bone, but they can't help my arthritis."

What do you guys think?

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[–] Zarobi@aussie.zone 3 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Interesting looking game, thanks! I'll give it a go tomorrow.

I have ME/CFS but not from COVID… I got it 25 years ago after a nasty case of EBV / Mono / Glandular Fever. I actually was a bit hopeful that after all the attention from COVID, I would be able to get better treatment. A whole bunch of clinics and resources opened up, after all.

All the clinics and resources I called said they only support long COVID. Same symptoms, same disease, but I'm barred treatment due to politics. That actually made me quite depressed for a while. I considered lying, but decided against it.

[–] bjoern_tantau@swg-empire.de 4 points 1 week ago

Yeah, I actually hate that my GP is calling my issue Long Covid instead of ME. But I guess that opens me up to more options.

I'm even convinced that I had mild ME before Long Covid. But my old doctor didn't believe in that and I didn't know any better.