{"id":1760,"date":"2020-10-14T18:22:47","date_gmt":"2020-10-14T22:22:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.christinairene.com\/wp\/?p=1760"},"modified":"2020-10-14T18:26:02","modified_gmt":"2020-10-14T22:26:02","slug":"danger-touting-easy-cure-covid-19-illness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.christinairene.com\/wp\/archives\/1760","title":{"rendered":"The Danger of Touting an Easy \u201cCure\u201d for COVID-19 \u2026 or Any Illness"},"content":{"rendered":"

I am a “Supercontributor” for one of my favorite things on the internet: a wellness website called The Mighty<\/a><\/span>. Last week, they reached out to me to see if I’d write an article responding to President Trump’s statements about his COVID-19 treatment and the conversation surrounding his actions.<\/p>\n

I would never say no to The Mighty, but I most definitely hesitated. I didn’t want to write anything political. I actually did a speaking gig for the federal government this week and was honored to do so. But I realized I had something important to say on the topic that wasn’t political at all, and wasn’t actually about the President … mostly.<\/p>\n

The Mighty’s editors usually do a little streamlining of my work. That’s how publications work. Publications may also add in their own vibe on a topic. It’s a joint effort.<\/p>\n

Anyway, I am happy with my article as it is on their site. I’ll include a link at the end of this post if you want to see it.<\/p>\n

I did want to post my original submission, though. So here it is.<\/p>\n

A guy I dated once told me with complete sincerity that he believed I had the intelligence and mental strength to make my fibromyalgia go away. I know he meant it as encouragement and a compliment on my intellect, but what he was actually telling me was that my condition could be cured with positive thinking. That could only be possible if my chronic illness were \u201call in my head.\u201d It\u2019s not. It\u2019s real.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m all about positive thinking. It seems like half the articles in my personal blog<\/a><\/span> have to do with how to stay positive in difficult situations. But to push it as any type of cure is harmful. First of all, as I just mentioned, it minimizes whatever it is that we\u2019re going through. Depression is a real illness; it can\u2019t be \u201cfixed\u201d if we just \u201clook at the bright side.\u201d Auto-immune diseases are real; a flare-up can\u2019t be prevented with yoga and meditation. Many of our disabilities and conditions are invisible, but they are most definitely not contained in our minds, and we have no more control over the onset of anxiety than you do with the onset of a stomach flu.<\/p>\n

Yes, positivity definitely helps. It\u2019s just one part of self-care that I practice every day to help manage my symptoms. But if I were to believe I could cure myself, and give that a solid try, I\u2019d end up just feeling like a big failure and spiral into a terrible gloom of hopelessness. Or I\u2019d stop listening to my body\u2019s limitations and do things that might cause permanent damage. That\u2019s what happens when you oversell a \u201ccure.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s bad enough when an able-bodied person minimizes the severity of my conditions. It\u2019s even worse when it\u2019s done by someone who shares one of my diagnoses.<\/p>\n

I can compare it to being a female comedian. When men in the industry say that misogyny and sexual harassment don\u2019t happen, it hurts. But when women deny it, it\u2019s not just painful, but also dangerous. When someone else from my identity group (in this case, female comedians) makes a statement, that statement is more believable and taken as a representation of my own experience (it\u2019s not). The result is an entire group of people are denied the protection and help and equality we deserve.<\/p>\n

So when someone comes out saying they cured their own fibromyalgia or reversed their own arthritis, using positive thinking or whatever snake oil, that harms me and everyone with our diagnoses. It is a powerful, believable perpetuation of a toxic myth, one that crushes our credibility and impedes further research, treatment, and aid. I wish they would just be mindful that they\u2019re representing an entire identity group and that not everyone gets that we are all different individuals with different experiences.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m going to try to say this without getting political. I don\u2019t like to be political because my mission is always to inspire and help people \u2013 all people, not just those who agree that the Romantic era has the best opera (it does), or that I have the best dog ever (I do). I do want to talk about President Trump \u2026 as a celebrity, as a leader whom many look up to. As someone who was infected with and treated for COVID-19.<\/p>\n

I dug through his Twitter and watched two videos he posted after his hospitalization and treatment. I went straight to the source [https:\/\/twitter.com\/realDonaldTrump\/status\/1313959702104023047?s=03<\/a> https:\/\/twitter.com\/realDonaldTrump\/status\/1314175772563832833?s=03<\/a><\/span>] so I could have an opinion without being told what it should be. And here\u2019s my opinion.<\/p>\n

Many of his statements are uplifting and encouraging, just like those of my well-meaning boyfriend who believed I could cure my fibromyalgia with my mighty brain. I would love to believe this new medicine he was given at the Walter Reed Medical Center is so great it\u2019s practically a cure. I would love to believe it\u2019ll be available to everyone, free of charge, within weeks. I would love to believe everyone can recover from COVID-19 with such ease.<\/p>\n

But believing his statements is not only difficult, but dangerous. Again I\u2019ll say we cannot in any situation let one person\u2019s experience fully represent a group. My irritable bowel syndrome is different than your IBS. In fact, my IBS today is different than my IBS yesterday. President Trump\u2019s coronavirus experience is different than that of my friend\u2019s father, who is devasted to learn he\u2019ll be hospitalized for another month to treat his COVID. Different than my friend\u2019s best friend who is on a ventilator now and is not improving and they\u2019re begging for prayers. Different from my business associate\u2019s friend, a healthy middle-aged man, who just couldn\u2019t beat it and died.<\/p>\n

And access to medical care is not even a guarantee for many Americans.<\/p>\n

Gosh I would love to see this cure happen and everything open back up. I\u2019m one of the many whose small businesses were crushed by this pandemic (I\u2019m a speaker, on hidden disabilities). But we must continue to be careful. We are all different, and I don\u2019t want it to be me, or you, who breaks hearts by leaving this world too soon because we didn\u2019t take this virus seriously.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s real.<\/p>\n

Ready my article published by The Mighty here.<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I am a “Supercontributor” for one of my favorite things on the internet: a wellness website called The Mighty. Last week, they reached out to me to see if I’d write an article responding to President Trump’s statements about his … Read More »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[72],"tags":[189,190,102,108,111,110,242],"class_list":["post-1760","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-disabilities-awareness","tag-coronavirus","tag-covid-19","tag-disabilities","tag-hidden-disabilities","tag-invisible-disabilities","tag-mental-health","tag-treatment"],"yoast_head":"\nThe Danger of Touting an Easy \u201cCure\u201d for COVID-19 \u2026 or Any Illness - Christina Irene<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.christinairene.com\/wp\/archives\/1760\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Danger of Touting an Easy \u201cCure\u201d for COVID-19 \u2026 or Any Illness - Christina Irene\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"I am a “Supercontributor” for one of my favorite things on the internet: a wellness website called The Mighty. 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