DEAR THYROID^TM

The essence of Dear Thyroid is rooted in spirited debates. We are not always going to agree. We’re not a Pollyanna community, if you will. We curse. We rant. We rave. We celebrate great doctors and call out the bad ones. We are downright brutal sometimes in our expression of our disease and, or cancer (we’re also pretty damn funny, I think). The human condition encapsulates a myriad of emotions. We want everyone to feel safe in expressing those emotions. THAT IS THE CORE OF THIS BRAND – say anything (save religion and politics).

As a brand and a community, our goal is to present information, share our stories and learn from each other, which ultimately begets change and awareness – and better treatment for thyroid patients.

Flying With Broken Wings: Prejudice, Discrimination and the Need for Education, written by Sarah Downing was a historical tour about how ostracized, demoralized and victimized mentally and physically ill people were. Replete with historical references – this was and is an important article. Because sadly, not much has changed; if we journey with Sarah into the past, we can draw parallels about the treatment of chronically and mentally ill people in today’s society. That, my friends, is sad. Moreover, it’s tremendously educational; especially considering Dear Thyroid is committed to re-branding the face of thyroid diseases and thyroid cancers. In order to do that, we have to go there. To change the future, we need to know what happened in the past.

Thank you to everyone for sharing your thoughts and opinions as candidly as you did.

Today’s comment…

Miriam says:

Hi Sarah

What a wonderful constructed article. Very controversial this week.

Its sad that people make assumptions from looks alone. I do remember reading and seeing Jon Hurt portraying him in the Elephant Man. Sad that the people at the time didn’t see him for the person he was, not how he looked.

As for Hitler…..yes, I was a little upset reading about that part of history but sadly its fact and I know with you living and working in Germany how the Germans feel about that part of German’s past history, and not your personal thoughts, but that you were only portraying what is sadly a part of history that is fact and has to be told to today’s generation, even though its very upsetting to read.

Yes, its sad about your friend Mandy. It sounded like she made the best of her short life. I had a disabled friend too when I was a young girl. His name was Anthony, his mother was a friend of my mother. He was a couple of years older me and was in a wheelchair. He was a lovely boy with a great personality. I often went round to keep him company. We often used to play cards and chat and watch TV. He was not a well boy and often in hospital. He sadly died in his late teens/early 20s.

Sad that there are a lot of people who are quick to judge and discriminate people by first glance or by the way they speak or what they say, but we will always come across people like that in our lives and its up to us not to listen and learn about people before making our own judgements. Not everyone agrees and gets on with everybody, but and we all have to learn to accept this and get on with our lives. We all have our Thyroid conditions that challenges us on a daily basis which no doubt often gets us down and sometimes makes us get depressed, I am no exception.

I too always felt conscious about how much weight I put on as a result of my Thyroid condition. It bothered me for years, that people thought of me as being lazy and lethargic and probably overeating and using the Thyroid as an excuse for how I was, not realising that it was the truth. Thank goodness I have managed to tackle some of the weight problem and psychologically feel a little better in mind (though not regarding my Thyroid condition) not being as heavy, but I will never lose all the weight I put on over 20 years ago and except myself for who I am regardless of what people think of me.

Anyway, Sarah, keep up the good work, you do a thorough research and your articles are there to make us look at life from a different prospective, and to say that we Thyroid sufferers are not alone and we all suffer similar symptoms at some point or other.

Looking forward to next weeks article as always

Love

Miriam

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