The other day I was browsing through one of my favorite websites, The Mighty (great feel good bedtime reading) when I came across this article. The mighty is a website that compiles articles and blog posts from different blogs that celebrate "mighty" people. In this particular article though, the author was talking about when she didn't feel welcome in an autism support group. She was upset because parents thought she didn't know the struggles they went though since her kid is high functioning autistic and not low functioning like their children are. The author writes, "One group says, you aren’t autistic enough to be here, you don’t know our struggles. No I don’t. But, you don’t know our struggles, either. I mean this on the human level. How many of us know what it is like to walk in another’s shoes? None. Yes, my son is verbal. Yes, my son is gifted. But, you don’t see his ulcers from the anxiety he holds inside. You don’t see him when he has spent his day struggling to contain stims. You don’t see him when he’s sad because he feels as if he has no friends. As humans, we all want love and understanding. Because I speak of Asperger syndrome, it doesn’t mean I don’t want care for the autism spectrum at large. I do. I speak of what I know. Just as someone who writes about breast cancer doesn’t seek to diminish leukemia. We’re all doing our best to navigate this world and form community."
After reading this powerful article, I read a blog post on another food allergy website that was posted on twitter asking viewers to state if it was worse to have a peanut allergy or a tree nut allergy. Some said tree nut, others said peanut. I didn't understand. You see the difficulty of food allergies that makes awareness difficult is that food allergies are not a disorder like type 1 diabetes--where care is basically the same for every diabetic individual. What is safe for one food allergic person can kill another, while one precaution may be sufficient for one food allergic individual, it may not be for another. You see, food allergies are more like autism spectrum disorder then diabetes--they are a spectrum, in fact they are sort of like the image below.
After reading this powerful article, I read a blog post on another food allergy website that was posted on twitter asking viewers to state if it was worse to have a peanut allergy or a tree nut allergy. Some said tree nut, others said peanut. I didn't understand. You see the difficulty of food allergies that makes awareness difficult is that food allergies are not a disorder like type 1 diabetes--where care is basically the same for every diabetic individual. What is safe for one food allergic person can kill another, while one precaution may be sufficient for one food allergic individual, it may not be for another. You see, food allergies are more like autism spectrum disorder then diabetes--they are a spectrum, in fact they are sort of like the image below.
Let me explain, the x-axis (the horizontal line) is number of allergies ranging from one allergy (such as peanuts) to being allergic to virtually everything. Most food allergic people will fall somewhere on that spectrum. The y-axis (the vertical line) is allergen severity. On the bottom there are people with mild food allergies where as the top is airborne anaphylactic. Again, food allergic individuals will fall somewhere on the spectrum. Most people upon first glance would probably assume that people in quadrant 1 (being severely allergic to a lot of foods) have it much worse than people in quadrant 3 (being mildly allergic to one or two foods). The truth is though, that isn't necessarily the case. At every number of allergen and level of sensitivity comes different challenges. For example, I am anaphylactically allergic to so many foods that it makes it unsafe and impossible to eat in a restaurant, so I bring all my own food out to eat. While I deal with the challenge of having to bring my own food everywhere, I avoid the challenge of trying to safely order food at a restaurant that someone who is mildly (or severely) allergic to one food may face. In my opinion, one allergy isn't worse than any other.
Living with food allergies is tough, and while the basic notion of having a food allergy is what relates us is important, it is also important to keep in mind that no food allergic person will face the same challenges as another. Our job, as members of the food allergic community is to lift each other up, offer words of advice, but should never be to tell another that their food allergy isn't severe enough or that they don't know the challenges of living with a food allergy. So how would I answer the question of whether peanut allergies are worse than tree nut allergies? I would say they are equal. They both bring their own challenges and their own advantages so it is impossible to say whether one is worse than the other.
What do you guys think?
Living with food allergies is tough, and while the basic notion of having a food allergy is what relates us is important, it is also important to keep in mind that no food allergic person will face the same challenges as another. Our job, as members of the food allergic community is to lift each other up, offer words of advice, but should never be to tell another that their food allergy isn't severe enough or that they don't know the challenges of living with a food allergy. So how would I answer the question of whether peanut allergies are worse than tree nut allergies? I would say they are equal. They both bring their own challenges and their own advantages so it is impossible to say whether one is worse than the other.
What do you guys think?