A social space built for chronic life.

As someone who's been living with chronic conditions for more than two decades, I know the frustration, heartbreak, and complete exhaustion that comes with it. Frustration with a medical system that doesn't listen and doesn't care, and with a body that refuses to cooperate when I need it to most. The heartbreak of friends who say they get it, but get upset about another canceled hangout or get tired of hearing about pain and illness problems again. The exhaustion of going through life in a world not built for people like us.

Last year, during another long stretch of hospital visits, doctor's appointments, and months of missed work, I found myself once again trying to piece together community and understanding across multiple social platforms. I could find recommendations for symptom management and medication side effects on Reddit, condition-specific support groups on Facebook, and some amount of social connection with those in similar situations on a Discord server or TikTok Live conversations. Every time I felt I found someone who got it, I kept wishing I was interacting with them in more ways. If they understood my condition or symptoms in a Facebook group, I wished we could "grab coffee" on a live meetup platform. I was recommending Subreddits to people on discord and TikTok regularly.

Why didn't we have a place where all of these different social networking benefits meet? For a community like ours - a MASSIVE group who needs the benefits of virtual networking more than any other group, why didn't any platforms look for ways to meet those needs when so many of us would flock to them?

Chronic Social is the platform I was looking for and couldn't find. I'm building it for all of us who need community and understanding, but are too exhausted and beat down to keep attempting to find it. A space where we can show up from wherever we are in whatever capacity our bodies allow, and find the community and understanding we all need and deserve.