Okay so I'm not afraid to admit I'm about to be slightly hypocritical here.
But it can't be helped.
In the midst of all of this "The Silver Butterfly" promotion, I am getting supported by many people. I'm blessed and thankful beyond words.
However, as with anything, there are comments that are less than pleasing from people who
A. Haven't yet read my book.
and
B. Have never understood me, nor cared to even try.
I knew this was going to happen.
The main comment I'm going to mention is "I had her in class she was ill frequently."
Now this may not seem like a huge deal to anyone. But it was to me. Let me explain the situation.
My sophomore year in High School, was a very difficult year. In September of that year my father, who had cancer for 7 months, had passed away. So, in addition to being a teenager I was also at this point extremely depressed. However, that is not why I was ill... no, around the same time I had begun to have horrible pains in my abdomen, pains that would bring me to the ground. Each month there was an area of about 5+ days that I would have to leave school early (if you are a woman you'll understand why, and since I singled women out a man should even understand why) In this woman's class, on one particular occasion I was in so much pain that I needed to leave the classroom immediately and she REFUSED to let me leave. I had kindly raised my hand to ask to be excused and she ignored me for 10 minutes! Finally I asked to leave after my 3 best friends got her attention. Due to the excruciating pain they all walked me to the office (one on each side and the other behind me, making sure I wouldn't fall) It was after that day I was told I may have had a cyst on my ovaries that burst, then told I had endometriosis. I'm not afraid to admit that it was also during this time that I had been constipated for the majority of a 6 year period BUT this was not what made me ill frequently, meaning the cause wasn't my brain disorder, as assumed in the above comment, but it was a female issue.
Seeing that comment by someone that has yet to take the time to read my book, Someone who never took the time to care for me, who judged me back then and neglected me when I was in need of medical attention... made me so angry.
Now, I'm guessing, and almost hoping she thought I would never see that comment. Because if she didn't think that, then she obviously doesn't see that saying I was ill frequently is an issue.
ACC isn't about being ILL FREQUENTLY... well at least not for me. In fact I've always been described as very healthy. I had endometriosis once, I've had 4 knee surgeries, my gal-bladder removed and yes I SOMETIMES have chronic constipation brought on by my ACC... but I rarely am actually sick or "ill." I am a high functioning ACCer and I think it's disrespectful to those who are worse off than me, to say that about me.
I don't want this opinionated post to make anyone angry or to cause anyone to not want to read my book my desire here is the same as the one I had writing The Silver Butterfly. To spread awareness. To make people see that snap judgments like the one in this comment are wrong. My "illness" was from a female issue not a brain disorder. Pinning it on that is not fair to myself or other ACCers. I exist to spread the knowledge of ACC, to make sure people know when they are wrong. As I am not in contact with this woman and ran across her comment because someone else had kindly shared my post, this was my best outlet. Really... it always IS my best outlet because I can reach more people this way to let them know the fact that we ALL need to be careful what we say because you never know who will see it (or even hear it.)
Don't make snap judgments at others like that.
Let me be clear about one more thing before I go. I have no ill feelings toward this woman. I forgave her long ago for what happened in her class room. But once that comment was made, for others to see... I felt as though I needed to make others aware of the whole situation. For myself as a means to release any bad feelings that COULD come back up because of that... AND to stand up for my fellow ACCers the ones that have many more problems than I do, the one that spend time in hospitals or have to live in assisted living because they need more attention than me. I'm not saying I don't have my own issues brought on by my ACC but during that time in my life, those issues are not the ones that had me "frequently ill" I did not appreciate her saying that and I wanted desperately to set the record straight.
That being said, PLEASE buy my book The Silver Butterfly, so that you can enter a greater understanding of what ACC is, and who I am as an ACCer.
The Silver Butterfly by Lynnea Yancy Squires
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