GiaK Posted December 12, 2018 Share Posted December 12, 2018 From Everything Matters: Through the years, as a means to survive, I’ve sculpted my social-media so that I don’t have to listen to a lot of otherwise very offensive stuff about the experience of those of us with extreme sensitivities, and iatrogenic and chronic illness. Still, because I care about some of the folks who continue to say insensitive, ignorant things about us, I do encounter it from time to time. In fact we cannot hide from the ignorance in the world about our experience and still live in the world and so I’m entering a phase of healing and learning that is helping me re-enter the world. That means facing such insults daily. Microaggressions against us is the norm. I plan to learn to be in this world and so I need to learn to metabolize such violent communication. Below I share my first attempt to do this with some clarity. I’m responding to someone I actually love very much who has been part of my social media scene for many years. He posted a status update dissecting those of us with chronic illnesses and hypersensitivities that included calling our experience hypochondriacal. My response (this is a very early attempt, I intend to develop this mode of communication and SO MUCH is left out of this brief response…please feel free to add your own discoveries in the comments😞 Calling these issues simple hypochondria is oversimplifying as well as making it clear you do not understand what is happening at all. These are gut and nervous system issues in general that take on many different flavors in different people that have very real physical underpinnings. Oversensitivity and hypersensitivity is a real phenomena with too much data coming into our systems. Managing input becomes extremely important. For example (because he spoke to food issues in particular 😞 We discover that food and digestion cause overstimulation (along with all other inputs of daily living) and we further discover that certain foods cause more stimulation than others (having profound gut impairments do that). Most of us are not aware of the details because the overwhelm is daunting. Food is relatively easy to control as opposed to most other inputs. We become afraid and given professionals across the board do not know how to help us and we are told we are hypochondriacs, for example, the fear gets pretty bad. It helps somewhat to control input we discover and so we do. Sometimes it helps a lot. It doesn’t really matter how we control it once we start controlling it certain aspects of the experience calm down. The edges, so to speak. We do become aware of phenomena on a finer level than most people. Of course there is so much din and cacophony that we also misinterpret some of our experience. We are no different from the rest of the human species in this way misinterpretation of experience is the norm. Food is the easiest thing to control. And indeed we find there are differences between foods and how they interact with the gut and therefore make us feel. The gut hypersensitivity is real. Anyway that is just a wee bit primer. I won’t be sharing all the other insights I’ve gleaned over the years in a forum that has framed the issue in an overtly hostile fashion. Whether or not you did that intentionally it’s the case. We have to deal with this kind of disrespect everywhere we go. I’m happy to discuss with you one-on-one what I have discovered if you are actually interested in hearing about it. There’s not very many places to discuss this openly even among those who are suffering because most of us don’t have the privilege to navel gaze for 10 years like I have so that this level of detail feels simply like another layer of chaos we cannot take in. That privilege of navel gazing has not been enjoyable however it has been extraordinarily revealing and has indeed lead to healing as well. The sensitivity is real we all learn to manage it differently and have varying degrees of consciousness about exactly what’s going on. Many of us certainly have more of it than you do in this paragraph but there are very few places to share what we’ve come to understood even among ourselves. More on hypersensitivy More on the somatic experience of hypersensitivity More on mindfulness and hypersensitivity https://beyondmeds.com/2018/12/12/speaking-to-normals-about-our-hypersensitivity/ Everything Matters: Beyond Meds https://beyondmeds.com/ withdrawn from a cocktail of 6 psychiatric drugs that included every class of psych drug. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mentor FarmGirlWorks Posted December 12, 2018 Mentor Share Posted December 12, 2018 Thanks for this @GiaK/Monica: my metaphorical hat is off to you. You are courageous to try to explain the reality of hypersensitivity to normals (I read the update on BeyondMeds). I quit social media completely in April 2018. It was too much for me. The last posts on facebook were articles about the difficulty of getting off antidepressants and corruption in the pharmaceutical/medical world. Not much response. Ironically, this was when the Cambridge-Analytica story blew and it probably looks like I got off for political reasons -- that is just as likely. In the last few months, I have been more open with "normals" and have lost many people in the process. It has been very hurtful. I don't know what judgements or fear or disgust they have for me. But I feel like this is a transition of finding more appropriate allies to be able to go forward. Prozac | late 2004-mid-2005 | CT WD in a couple months, mostly emotional Sertraline 50-100mg | 11/2011-3/2014, 10/2014-3/2017 Sertraline fast taper March 2017, 4 weeks, OFF sertraline April 1, 2017 Quit alcohol May 20, 2017 Lifestyle changes: AA, kundalini yoga "If you've seen a monster, even if it's horrible, that's evidence of divinity." – Damien Echols Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GiaK Posted December 12, 2018 Author Share Posted December 12, 2018 I have lots of normal friends that respect me. LOTS of them. It really doesn't have to be us and them but I know that it sure feels that way far too often. I don't deal with any political stuff anymore...outside of the stuff I post. I don't use social media much at all anymore and only for fun stuff. I still do my work...I just do it very differently. Everything Matters: Beyond Meds https://beyondmeds.com/ withdrawn from a cocktail of 6 psychiatric drugs that included every class of psych drug. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mentor FarmGirlWorks Posted December 12, 2018 Mentor Share Posted December 12, 2018 @GiaK I was not suggesting an "us" vs "them" attitude -- that's not productive or fair at all. I have a few friends that have been totally supportive and rocks. But there have been others that just did not accept what was happening as "real" and that drugs caused it. Prozac | late 2004-mid-2005 | CT WD in a couple months, mostly emotional Sertraline 50-100mg | 11/2011-3/2014, 10/2014-3/2017 Sertraline fast taper March 2017, 4 weeks, OFF sertraline April 1, 2017 Quit alcohol May 20, 2017 Lifestyle changes: AA, kundalini yoga "If you've seen a monster, even if it's horrible, that's evidence of divinity." – Damien Echols Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GiaK Posted December 13, 2018 Author Share Posted December 13, 2018 Yes I understand that has been my experience too I'm sorry if I read something into your first comment. Everything Matters: Beyond Meds https://beyondmeds.com/ withdrawn from a cocktail of 6 psychiatric drugs that included every class of psych drug. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GiaK Posted December 13, 2018 Author Share Posted December 13, 2018 A little update *To be clear, I do not believe in normal. What is normal? also there were a couple updates on the original at the bottom https://beyondmeds.com/2018/12/12/speaking-to-normals-about-our-hypersensitivity/ Everything Matters: Beyond Meds https://beyondmeds.com/ withdrawn from a cocktail of 6 psychiatric drugs that included every class of psych drug. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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