If you have recently been diagnosed with an autoimmune disease, you might feel both anxious and depressed about the future.
While it is totally normal to feel this way, one way to help battle the isolation and loneliness that often comes with a diagnosis, is to find ‘your people!’
Finding positive support after a diagnosis is crucial to healing and moving forward.
When I was dealing with my health crisis in 2017 (You can learn more about that here) I stumbled across a website that is dedicated to helping individuals who live with chronic illness; and it has been a godsend.
This website I found was called The Mighty. Add it to your bookmarks. Trust me.
This website provides a community of support for those living with autoimmune diseases, mental health, cancer or any other illness.
This website is made up of two primary support networks.
The first support network help to connect you one on one with other people online.
You can sign up for an account and start connecting right away.
This is a great place to reach out to other people that may share the same experiences with you and may help to make you feel less alone.
The second support network is made up of stories and articles that have been published by the mighty team members.
Articles are categorized by illness so you can do a search and find information relevant to you.
This is a great place to learn more about your illness and find ideas for coping.
The articles were written by people like you and me, who struggle with illness day to day and have learned healthy coping mechanisms that have helped them.
If you are new to the world of 'The Mighty' I also recommend you check them out on social.
My person fav is Facebook. I like Facebook because they have pages dedicated to each illness. (ex. Sjogren's, Lupus, Depression - they each have their own dedicated FB page)
By clicking that blue thumbs on on these pages, you can get updates specific to your illness(es) and not get bombarded with irrelevant posts.
Don't forget to click the blue thumbs up to follow them on your Facebook account!
Feel free to click the links below to get right into the mighty website and read some good articles. Here are a few of my favorites.
Click Here to connect with Sjogren's community on The Mighty page.
Click Here to connect with Lupus community on The Mighty page.
Click Here to see a digital resource story for individuals dealing with depression.
There is a ton of helpful people, stories and information on the website The Mighty.
I highly encourage you to add this to your list of positive social online interactions.
Let me know what you think!
Wishing everyone Health and Happiness,
Heather 💜