The definition of community is: A group of people living in the same place or having a particular characteristic in common. A feeling of fellowship with others, as a result of sharing common attitudes, interests, and goals.
When I think of community I think of a group of people with similar journeys who are uplifting and encouraging. Are you a part of a community? Do your community encourage and uplift you? To be honest I’ve never experienced that in any of the allergy communities that I’ve tried to be a part of.
What I have experienced is seeing people being attacked for asking a question, giving advice, or even because their allergic reaction presented with different symptoms than someone else who claims the same allergy. This isn’t how its supposed to be. We can change this by practicing empathy and respect for each other. We have to try harder to be the example that we expect non-allergic individuals to be.
We can NOT expect our family and our friends to understand and respect our allergies if we can’t respect each other. How can we improve? All it takes is a few of us and we can improve by re-educating ourselves on food allergies and how they will impact each person differently. We need to be inclusive to an allergy that is not our own. We need to embrace each other because although our journeys may be similar they will not play out the same.
In the end no one wants to feel isolated. We aren’t in a competition. We are a group of people who should be on the same team, fighting the same fight against all food allergies together.
#teamallergy