Earlier this month, Team of Advisors member Cyrena shared how she relies on many of the Partnership Principles in her interactions with her physicians. Today, she offers some insight into a different type of relationship in our health journeys — the ones we have on social media.
In addition to PatientsLikeMe, Cyrena is active on Twitter and Facebook and has used both to connect with other patients who what it’s like to live with bipolar II and lupus. Whether you’re social media-savvy or not, check out how she stays in touch with her virtual community to “exchange advice or just plain empathy” and get involved in patient advocacy.
“It’s all about networking”
Many patients live with multiple conditions, but the current nature of illness and treatment forces us to think of our conditions individually. In reality, these conditions interact and influence each other in ways that clinicians may not understand or recognize. Many of these patients end up online and looking for support.
I primarily interact with the chronic illness community on Twitter, but to a lesser extent on Facebook as well. I was an intermittent follower, but I became highly active during my hospitalization for my spinal cord injury in 2014. I didn’t really know any other chronically ill people with either of my conditions, but when I dove into Twitter, I found people with each, both, and so many more. It was exciting to find this virtual community that provided the peer emotional support that I lacked in real life.
The number one form of support that I obtain from interacting with patients online is validation. In physician appointments it is challenging to fit everything that I would like to convey or discuss in 15 to 30 minutes. But when I go online, someone is going through the same thing I am and we can exchange advice or just plain empathy. There is also an extensive patient advocacy community which I have become part of, which gives me the opportunity to not just voice my opinions on how patients are treated in the modern medical system, but also brainstorm with others on how to affect change.
“It was exciting to find this virtual community that provided the peer emotional support that I lacked in real life.”
First and foremost, I would recommend that patients interested in partnering with communities in social media recognize that there may be a sizable upfront investment. Twitter is akin to hovering above a massive highway and trying to identify which drivers you want to talk to. You can start by finding the Twitter name of one of the major organizations for your illness(es). Who do they follow? Follow some of those people. Who do they talk to? Follow those people. Start engaging people by sending messages pertaining to a topic of active discussion. Eventually those people start to follow you and your network grows.
Twitter moves very fast, but there are ways to stay engaged and live a normal life. I have a Twitter app on my phone that I check when I’m waiting in line or at the bus stop, and I keep a Twitter tab open in my browser when I’m working so I can pop in and out whenever I need a break from working. I have found the investment to be worth it because I like the rapid turnover of conversation and the opportunity to have a pseudonymous account. Others may prefer using Facebook for forming social media connections. There are thousands of patient groups there. Again, just start by searching for your illness and move from there.
It can seem scary and time consuming, but I’m an introvert and a graduate student. I just needed to find other people out there like me in some way. To quote a phrase I’ve heard endlessly over the past few months, “It’s all about networking!”
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