The Month of May – Awareness Days/Weeks

Wow the month of May really is a busy one when it comes to awareness events. Especially when three of your conditions have their awareness days all in the same week, the same day even!

We have Fibromyalgia awareness day on 12th and depending on where you are in the world for the whole of May. M.E awareness day again on 12th and awareness week 9th -15th (Updated for 2022) . Finally, Mental Health week from 9th-15th May. (Updated for 2022).

For more information on living with each condition – check out my previous blogs posts here: Fibromyalgia, ME/CFS and Mental Health.

Why are awareness days significant?

Many people would argue that technically awareness of conditions should be something that is happening all year round and not just at a particular time of year, and I would agree. However, awareness days are great for a number of reasons too.

Firstly, they help you to engage with others with the same conditions as you come together to get the word out.

Secondly, when there is an influx of information on social media things are more likely to be seen and read rather than be dismissed, with the hope to educate others.

Thirdly, it can help to reach people who may be struggling and give a sense of community.

Finally, they can hopefully help to raise some much needed money for the charities that help us the most.

The downsides to awareness days

As someone with a chronic illness you can often feel an overwhelming pressure to fly the flag for your particular condition, like it’s your duty. When you blog about chronic illness, you can feel an obligation to do something to show support.

This year I started out with vigour, researching what different charities were doing for the day/week (online of course), and made a conscious decision that I would show my support with various ones in order to represent all three of my conditions. All it would take was sharing a few social media posts each day, and completing a few ways to wellness activities (mental health related).

Day 1 was great, I felt positive and productive and by day 2 I crashed. A mere two days in!! To begin with I couldn’t understand this overwhelming fatigue – sure I am used to it happening, but usually I have an idea why. Then it hit me – it was the awareness planning. Not necessarily the tweets themselves, but the planning of what to write, accessing templates, when to send them, and the fact I was trying to do it for three separate conditions.

It was this moment I decided I had no choice, but to scale back. Still show my support yes, (luckily I had scheduled several tweets to go out later in the week), but to stop and put my needs first, and if able to pick it up a few days later.

In hindsight, I think maybe I should have picked one condition to focus on , or maybe one day. Nevertheless I did my best and that is enough. Wow wee, with comments like this I think my mental health has definitely improved!!!

What I am trying to say is you should never feel guilty for putting your health first. As I mentioned at the start of this post technically awareness is all year round, not just for one day or one week.

What you can do to raise awareness.

Equally if you do feel like you would like to do something, don’t be confined to a date and make it an action that is doable for you. You could:

• Re-tweet or share a post
• Start a conversation with a loved one
• Direct people to your favourite charity
• Make a piece of art
• Donate or purchase an item from an online charity shop
• Share your story with others

Being chronically ill you are raising awareness all the time through the people you meet and your family and friends. In turn these people will also raise awareness when talking about your situation with others, and hopefully the domino effect begins. This is what awareness is all about – changing perception, teaching others and getting the word out there.

Sarah xx