Journey App — A Safe Place, A Haven
Taylor Martinez and Loren Hall together envisioned a unique idea for changing people’s lives, and I have benefited, along with many others. To illustrate how “Journey-A Positive Social Network,” aka Journey App, has enriched my life, the nuances of life with a chronic or unseen illness must be briefly examined. This will enable you, the reader, to recognize the brilliance of their idea. It’s vitally important that you do, because someone you know has a chronic illness. Maybe it’s you.
Most of us go through life expecting normal outcomes and pursuing advancement. We plan and strategize our money, time, education, and decisions. We have contingency plans in place. After arriving at adulthood, we will pursue our educations, graduate from college, maybe obtain a graduate degree, secure gainful employment, somewhere along the line marry, and maybe have a kid or two.
We’ll eventually end up in the suburbs driving that minivan — you’ve seen the commercials. Our investments will flourish. We expect to live longer than our parents, and eventually we’ll enjoy a retirement that involves travel and adventure.
There it is. The American dream.
Many people achieve the dream; however, if it were that simple, we wouldn’t have millennials graduating from college with so much debt that many have effectively become the working poor, and neither would the middle class be struggling. We’ve also not reckoned with some of the other dream killers — infertility, divorce, failed investments, cancer, natural disasters, and many other tragedies. All of these illustrate that many factors are outside our control as we pursue this dream.
Given the likelihood of at least some of these happening to us, it’s a wonder we hold onto this ideal. The pursuit of the American dream can be a harsh taskmaster, and since happily-ever-after is seldom achieved in complete perfection, we rarely stop to consider that it’s an unrealistic expectation. We’re largely uninformed regarding the social, mental, and physical challenges currently faced by millions of Americans in their everyday lives.
Therefore, when tragedy strikes, we’re unprepared, feeling as if life is unfair, perhaps cursing our luck, the stars, or God himself. As Americans, most of us are unaware of how unique our lifestyle and its expectations really are on a global scale. Unexpected and misunderstood chronic illness, therefore, can be devastating.
Unbeknownst to most, there’s a hidden epidemic occurring. I wish it weren’t true, but it is. Autoimmune disorders are growing at an alarming rate, and the medical world is just beginning to realize it and take action.
Today one in every five Americans has at least one of the approximately one hundred autoimmune diseases, making these the number two cause of chronic illness. However, because the healthcare industry has been slow in their recognition of these ominous facts, the National Institutes of Health has only budgeted 3% of their financial intake for basic research. This will change.
(Facts about autoimmune disorders can be found at the American Autoimmune Related Diseases Association: http://www.aarda.org/)
No one fully understands what causes these illnesses. They’re mysterious. Why would our immune systems begin to attack our own bodies? Possible causes include stress, diet, viruses, genetically modified food, and/or genetics, among other things.
Some autoimmune disorders, like rheumatic fever, multiple sclerosis (MS), lupus, and Type 1 diabetes, have been around for a while. But at first, these illnesses bore the same stigma that most of the other autoimmune illnesses bear today, the stigma of being misunderstood. A simple test exists for only one of the hundred: Type 1 diabetes. The rest are diagnosed by guesswork and elimination, because the main symptoms for most autoimmune disorders overlap at almost every point.
I say this gently. If a doctor doesn’t understand an ailment, she cannot recognize it, and if she doesn’t recognize it, she cannot diagnose it.
This means that it takes the average autoimmune sufferer four to five years to receive a diagnosis and then, way after the optimal window for treatment has passed, to begin adequate medical care. Usually, by then, she’s gone through at least five doctors, all while feeling miserable and experiencing weird symptoms that no one can explain. And, in the meantime, no one has believed she’s actually sick.
With most of these illnesses, there isn’t much outside evidence at first. Sufferers can put on makeup, fix their hair, and go out in public, holding it together for short periods of interaction, all the while appearing “fine.” However, each will probably then return home and spend the rest of the day in bed, for the crushing malaise and flu-like fatigue are the first and often the worst symptoms.
If your illness is invisible and most of the people you know doubt that you’re really sick, you receive no support and no kindness. You struggle alone. You feel isolated. Your friends eventually quit calling. Your world shrinks around you as you lose your job or have to drastically reduce your work hours. Your house is a mess, and you are lonely. These frustrations leaves wounds.
I was in this condition when I met Taylor and Loren on Instagram while they were still designing the Journey App. At that point, I was still undiagnosed, but I knew enough to hashtag #fibromyalgia and #chronicfatigue in my posts about life at home with my sickness. My doctors couldn’t figure out what was wrong and fell back on these labels, for these are legitimate disorders with similar symptoms. Taylor and Loren saw my hashtag and invited me to join Journey App when it was launched. It sounded intriguing.
If you haven’t heard of the Journey App, let me share a description from an earlier article. This app has been imagined, designed, and implemented at the perfect time.
From a recent article on Medium:
“The brainchild of Taylor Martinez (former University of Nebraska record breaking quarterback) and Loren Hall, ‘Journey- A Positive Social Network’ is the first app in its league to be exclusively dedicated to those struggling day-in and day-out with mental and physical challenges; who consider these challenges a test of their strength, patience, will-power and mettle, and who are ready to inspire with positivity and provide the inner-strength, support and courage that others in similar situation need.
“The app provides a platform for people dealing with any kind of disabilities, diseases or disorders to share their awe-inspiring journey with the world where they can connect and socialize with similar people to educate, uplift, advise and encourage each other to keep their spirits high and battle the mightiest of life challenges with a smile and positive attitude.
“‘Journey-A Positive Social Network’ strives to take social networking and mobile communication to a whole new level. This is evident through the concept and the idea behind it. Loren Hall, the co-founder, further added and said, “Journey can make a huge difference in millions of lives. The knowing and feeling of someone relating to you right in your palms will make all the difference in the world.”
I am a writer. The odd symptoms of my disease kicked into high gear in 2013 when I caught mono, also known as Epstein Barr Virus (EPV). This virus is a trigger for many autoimmune disorders. I went from being a high-energy workaholic overachiever to feeling as if I had aged about twenty-five years in one summer.
My work hours have been greatly reduced by my now diagnosed autoimmune disorder called systemic sclerosis. Since having EPV, I’ve worked in a horizontal position, writing, as I am now, while flat on my back. From this position I’ve published and promoted my first two novels and I write a biweekly blog to share my journey, encourage others, and promote my fiction writing.
But now, with the Journey App, I can interact with people who suffer in the same way. Like other social media, Journey is a community, but this community is comprised of people who are largely misunderstood, since the population knows very little about their unique struggles. On Journey App, each participant is able to share their story and choose the group with whom they desire to interact. There are hundreds of categories. I’m a member of the autoimmune community, a group of people from all walks of life who happen to be suffering in a similar way.
Members of groups share their common experiences and emotions with one another. The members of the autoimmune group, for instance, all understand the dark humor that accompanies a life-changing, though misunderstood, illness. We find the same things funny. The people I’ve met suffer bravely, and when their bravery falters, other sufferers encourage and pick them back up. We share motivational pictures, like the ones I’ve shared here, and words of concern. And, since most of us are isolated in some way, we truly form a community.
This app has made a huge difference in my life. Here is a group of people who don’t require me to explain anything about my illness, its treatment, or the accompanying frustrations. That is a gift! Journey App makes it possible to talk about how I feel in a safe place with people who truly understand.
The app has also given me a useful purpose, an outlet for encouraging others. All of my writing aims at inspiration and encouragement for my readers. Since I’m largely housebound now, the app provides a way to encourage other people with whom I can intimately relate. We understand one another. I now write as an ambassador for the Journey App.
You, your friends, and your family members who suffer from any type of sexual, mental, social, or physiological challenges would benefit from a connection with others who likewise struggle. There you will find a community and encouragement, and you’ll be blessed by helping others who are also suffering or recovering. Journey App is a safe place, a haven.
You can easily download “Journey-A Positive Social Network application” on your mobile device to come join us. It’s available for download on the Apple app store and is compatible on iPhone and iPod.
Find the Journey App here: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/journey-positive-social-network/id952520398?ls=1&mt=8
