Friday, May 6, 2011

Remember Not to Compare Yourself to Others

"Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle" - Plato

I ended my last post with that quote.  This is something that should pass through a human's mind before judging, jumping to conclusions, assuming, suggesting, condeming, etc.  I once heard the hardest thing about being a human being is living, being born and dying are the easy things in life.  I have conversations with family, friends, and even strangers where we will talk about life and our woes.  Even at times we just talk about the mundane things in life such as the weather or the recent holiday or the plans for the weekend.

There are a couple things I have heard a lot since my diagnosis with RA, "You're too young for that!" is one of them.  Common myth debunked: RA is diagnosed throughout a life span, not just once you hit your "senoir years".  Another thing I run into a lot is people assuming my condition is worse than their own conditions or health concerns. 

I was talking with my sister today on facebook and I was inspired to tell everyone. My health concerns are mine and yours are yours.  Neither one is more or less important that the other.  We all deal with our health in our own ways because we are unique.  Yes, I deal with chronic pain, but many other people do as well.  Am I worse than they are or are they worse off than I am?  It doesn't matter because it's not a competition.  I feel everyone has a right to express themselves and vent without feeling judged or compared to.  I am completely for people empathizing but remember once again we are unique.  We have differences in the way we feel, see, taste, cope, etc. 

Watching how different medications work for some while others don't is another way of viewing this.  When I was going to start on Enbrel I was excited because I knew a half dozen people who were on it and it worked great.  However, I wasn't one of them.  It is common for us as humans to compare ourselves to others.  Sometimes we belittle ourselves in the process while other times we may demean others to make us feel better. 

Always remember:
"Be kind for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle" - Plato

1 comment:

  1. YES! It frustrates me sometimes when people act like they're the only ones tired, achy, in pain, etc... but it's just as frustrating when people put themselves down because "others are worse so it doesn't really matter." We all feel what we feel, individually. We can't really know what someone else feels, so we CAN'T accurately compare experiences, even if we had the right to do so.

    I was talking with Law one day and we were just updating each other on what was going on in our lives. He commented that he's glad we each got our own challenges, because if we had to deal with each other's we'd probably drown under their weight. I think that's as accurate and insightful as I've heard. We have our own challenges, our own strengths and weaknesses, our own abilities to deal with our challenges and our own weak spots in dealing with them. No one else has that, or can really see those things.

    *gentle hugs* I love you. Glad we got to stop by for at least flying hugs on the way out.

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