Blogging with Parkinson's
A personal perspective on Young Onset Parkinson's
Why Blog?
Posted by on April 11, 2011
This is something I’ve been thinking about recently. Why do I feel the need to blog about my medical condition? There are several reasons:
- I like writing. I suppose, in way, I’ve been waiting for a subject to blog about.
- I hope that other people who are affected by Parkinson’s will find my blog useful and interesting.
- I find Parkinson’s difficult to talk about. Even – or possibly especially – to people that I know well. Emotions come to the surface more often in person, and it’s all too easy to get distracted from the subject.
- It gives me an excuse to find out more – and something to do with the more when I do discover it.
- The blog acts as a sort of diary to remind me what happened when.
- Blogging allows me to ‘compartmentalise’ the fact that I have Parkinson’s. It’s always there, of course, but when I think about the condition, I quite often think about blogging about it, and that makes it easier to cope with.
- It also allows me to direct friends and acquaintances somewhere if they want to know more than is comfortable to tell them in person (or in a letter, or an e-mail, or even on Facebook); they can visit or not, and read as much, or as little, as they like. This makes me feel better, because I am not boring my friends with details.
- It’s quite similar, particularly when I’m putting together a researched post, to the sort of work that I used to do before my children were born (the sort of work that I still hope to return to). Blogging helps me feel that I am ‘keeping my hand in’.
When I first started looking on the Internet for information about what was happening to me, most of what I found was from the United States. There’s nothing wrong with that – after all, a neurological condition knows no national boundaries – but the American health system is a little different to the one here in the UK, and there are a few cultural differences, too. I also found relatively little about Young Onset Parkinson’s.
I’ve just posted a ‘Links’ page (up there at the top, there’s a tab that’ll get you there). Just in case you’re interested. And me – I’m interested in what you think. Do comment, if you have something to say. There’s an automatically generated “Leave a Comment” button to the top right of every post (and if you’re reading the post itself, rather than the home page, there’ll be a comment box at the bottom. Cheers!
I recognise many of these reasons. I hope yr still finding the blog useful.
I am, Quarkee, I am. It’s had a surprising bonus, too – I’ve actually “met” a fair few people because of the blog, many of whom are in a similar position to me.