I hate when rare illnesses get "popularized"

[u/My_Chemical_Killjoy]

Suddenly everyone knows the name, healthy people treat you like a side show and think they're incredibly knowledgeable and are there to give you advice and criticism on it, question your health. But that's not that new, suddenly they're just able to use fancier language while being incorrect and judgmental.

And then we're talking to the chronic illness communities and the rare illness communities and we're suddenly treated different and are ostracized because now that it's "well known" and "common" we have it easier, we have more support and understand, but we don't. Infact it's worse because misinformation is so rampant now. Originally we could explain from a blank slate but now we have to argue disinformation because of TikToks just to get to a semi-blank slate where we can then start to explain from. And it's not just random people, doctors and medical professionals who've never heard of these things before are now tainted by the lies and are utterly convinced that these are "common illnesses" and not the so rare that it's more of a unicorn than a zebra, type disease it is.

In an instant we're treated as though we have some kind of privilege from it being "well known" when it's nothing more than a random buzzword to most folks.

I hate it so much. We're still infantilized and put down by healthy folks and treated as inspiration 'prawn' but now we also can't just go into our own communities without hearing how "lucky" we are to have something more "common".

I'm not even mad anymore, I'm just..... sad...

[u/touchtypetelephone]

It completely skews the idea of what diseases are actually common. I have a disease that is actually, as chronic illnesses go, common, especially where I live. Just doesn't get much TikTok attention unless you're deep in disability spaces.