'M.E. myself and I' by Anna Redshaw

I don’t think I will ever be able to articulate how much of a difference this community makes to my poorly little life.

I’m just sharing a little bit about life in the slow lane and the thoughts and wonderings that come with that. And hoping you’ll come to my little tea party, and that it’ll help remind you that you matter and that there are people and charities out there who care and who are fighting for you every day.

That’s all this is. This account.

A safer place for me to share and offload with people who know that “Get Well Soon” doesn’t apply.

In truth, I can get lonely, and this is a large part of my social life. I need to talk about ‘all this’ somewhere that’s accessible to me, and where I can trust people not to change to topic to one “less depressing”. And it makes my whole day to see some goodness in yours. When Mr Tree Surgeon and I chat about our days when he’s home from work, I so often share what you’ve shared – if you’ve told me that you’ve baked a cake, or got into the garden, or managed to have a shower, well, that’s what I tell him about as my news. You matter to me.

But I’m not convinced I’m cut out for a bigger following; not as thick skinned as one can need to be on the internet, especially not since being more unwell since this relapse. A lot of people celebrate reaching each milestone when it comes to followers, but I’ve just been feeling uncomfortable and overwhelmed since I hit 3000 (Instagram followers) last month. I thought it might be nice to get to 2000, for Tea Party For M.E. purposes, but now it feels a bit scary that there are so many people here.

But a larger following is great for the tea party.

A larger following means more people are reached – more people who might potentially join in and feel less alone. More people who might have forgotten that they’re so worth a fundraising event dedicated to them after M.E changed their whole lives.

Making more people aware of the tea party potentially means more donations to charities working on our behalf to advocate for us, support us, and fund vital biomedical research which can lead to treatments.

Thanks for supporting me and being so nice. And making me feel like I’m not in this on my own.