My Alzheimer's Journey
Part 49 - Shout Out To The Reddit Community
Reddit is a collection of communities (subreddits) you can join and participate in, which each have their own rules and culture. While Reddit is considered a social media platform, it’s less about following individuals (like Facebook/Instagram) and more about communities. There are over 125,000 active communities and 1.21 billion monthly active users. Some communities have over a million members and some have just a handful of members.
I have lurked on Reddit for over twelve years. In the past three or four years, I have become more involved on Reddit, and since August I have been become an active participant in several communities.
If you are not a Redditor, I encourage you to take a look at this awesome forum for entertainment, information, and connection.
I am an active participant in the Alzheimer’s (r/Alzheimers) and Dementia (r/dementia) communities or subreddits. All participants are anonymous. Redditors have unique usernames. Interestingly, you can become online friends with someone and only know them by their username. The support and encouragement I receive from r/Alzheimers and r/dementia is almost unbelievable.
This weekend, there have been several people sharing the death of their loved one from Alzheimers or dementia. These posts are an emotional expression of grief, relief, and sadness. The community rallies around the OP (original poster) offering support, condolences, and a sometimes just a shoulder to cry on.
Many of the discussions in r/Alzheimers and r/dementia are about very specific caregiver concerns, treatment options, and loved one behavior. The community always has someone who has been there and done that, no matter what issue the OP has. Being a caregiver is a labor of love and a very difficult job. Reddit provides a supportive community and a safe place for caregivers to vent.
Linda and I are aggressively trying to liquidate trailers, equipment, and tools from our recently closed construction business. I posted in r/contractor and r/construction Saturday asking for guidance about the best way to sell the trailers. The response was overwhelming. So many people with much more experience than me provided exceptional advice. Additionally, these complete strangers expressed their concern about my disease. Some even suggested treatment options that have worked with friends or family members with Alzheimer’s.
For fun, I posted my blog post about taking away driving privileges in r/driving, r/Alzheimers, and r/dementia. The result was a robust conversation. Strangers sharing their experiences. Many of the stories were humorous, and they brought back memories I have of my father. I learned that my father is not the only person to call a locksmith to have keys made to their car. It apparently is a rather common reaction to taking away the keys.
Our country (and the World) has never been more politically and culturally divided than it is today. This division has resulted in anger, hatred, and rage between people with different ideologies and beliefs. It is difficult to openly express your personal thoughts on anything remotely political. Thoughtful political discussion among strangers seems to be a thing of the past.
On Reddit, you can join a subreddit focused on any political ideology you are interested in. I promise the discussion will be lively, thought-provoking, and sometimes snippy and confrontational. Yet, it is a safe platform because everyone is anonymous. Most importantly, I hope these discussions result in thoughtful reflection of your own, and other peoples, beliefs.
In the thousands of subreddits that are not political in nature, no one cares what your political beliefs are. Instead, you have a group of people joined together who share a common hobby, religion, vocation, illness, kink, etc. These communities provide support, friendship, knowledge, and compassion to their members.
I know that without the support of my Reddit communities, my Alzheimer’s journey would be much more difficult.