Forgiving My Limitations as an Online Health Advocate

This blog is inspired by a forum question by fellow SHN writer, Raquel Dozier, on the topic of forgiveness and forgiving ourselves as advocates. It got me thinking about the role and importance of forgiveness and my journey as an eczema online health advocate. I think one of the biggest things that I have been hard on myself about along my health advocacy journey has been about not reaching more people through my social media and online content.

Survivor's guilt

There is a level of survivor’s guilt as an eczema warrior (and perhaps the same goes for other chronic illness warriors) when you hear about people going through similar experiences as you. For example, there are some people who give up and take their lives, because it is too painful to continue living in their current condition with their illness. And a part of me wishes that I could have reached out to them sooner or known of them sooner. I sometimes get in my head about it and think that maybe I could have been the one to get through to them and help them live another day.

Of course I'm so grateful that the chronic illness communities online are so strong and active now with social media. And that so many people can reach so many more people out in the world in different ways that I never could. Whenever I hear about another eczema warrior who has given up the fight, there's always a part of me that wonders if I had made contact with them or them being aware of my online content could have been something that could have helped them keep going.

Sometimes in these moments I wish I was a more popular content creator

But the truth is that I am an introvert and I honestly am quite comfortable with my small yet loyal following online. I've had to forgive myself for just being who I am. I have had to comfort myself with the fact that there are still people who have found me at all. I figure, the ones who will benefit from my content and my delivery style the most will be the ones that find me. And that is a good enough contribution to suicide prevention for my eczema community. Also, the people that I reach are the people that only I could reach in the way that I do. And that matters.

Forgiving myself

Being the workaholic that I can be, I've also had to forgive myself for having limits when it comes to my time and energy for online advocacy work. Of course, we all have lives of our own, day jobs, and other things that we prioritize in our lives as individuals. Sometimes I forget that it is okay to not always be consistent with my online advocacy work since it is technically an additional voluntary role that I take on on top of my regular work and life as a human being.

What have you had to come to terms with and find forgiveness within yourself when it comes to your advocacy? Can you relate to any of the above? Or have something else to add? Please share your experiences and insights in the comments down below!