Advocacy, Part 1

This is the first of many posts about how to make meaningful progress in bettering your access to necessary food and accommodations that come with a life of numerous allergies. I must preface by saying that this is an extraordinarily difficult task as not only does it require you to understand the complexities a set of allergies carries, but it also demands that you be able to effectively communicate those complications with people who may not be as invested as you in your self-preservation, either due to a lack of time, interest, or any other host of reasons. The saying, "You are your best advocate" only holds practical value if people take your advocacy and turn it into some change to the status quo, rather than just being moved emotionally and moving on to the host of other occupations they may be obliged to fulfill throughout the day.

So the question is, how do we effectively advocate? Its important to understand the toolset available to us. In the near future, I will be expounding on this advocacy toolset further, analyzing one "tool" at a time, but for now, I want to focus on one in particular: experience. The biggest asset we have when trying to advocate is experience. The more experience you have struggling with the intricacies of your cause, the better you will be when communicating it to others. For allergies, the weight of caution that we are familiar with on a daily basis can only be impressed upon our peers using our personal knowledge and experience. It is up to us to make it a real issue they have to grapple with when dealing with our foods. Tell them about the hives, tell them about the throat closing up, along with the hair standing up and the stomach imploding. At the same time, we do not want to terrify our neighbors with possession-like horror stories, but the point I am trying to get across is that what is needed is a succinct sentence or two that captures the danger of these very real symptoms, so that we can essentially jolt our listeners to the same medium of thinking as us. I would do this by maybe initially stating the severity of my allergies, name 2 of the worst symptoms and then say something to the effect of: "to avoid these fun experiences, we are looking to minimize the potential of deadly allergen exposure in whatever ways we can, in this case meaning...." and you would continue with the necessary measures; if a restaurant, instructing the cooking staff to use new pans, utensils, and only ingredients that meet the requirements of the list of allergens you give to the server/manager; if in a classroom or casual setting, ensuring your child sits at a separate table if needed or bringing acceptable food from home to participate (personally, I've always gotten away with sitting at the same table as my friends, but for those with air-sensitive allergies, make sure to have that person sit at a separate table). Back to the earlier template statement of "to avoid these fun experiences..", I thought I should mention why the fun element is essential to their execution of the desired safety measure. The reasoning behind this phrase is that prior to it, you have just finished mentioning the 2 horrific symptoms that may result from an allergy attack, so you've now (ideally) submerged your listener into an ocean of caution, leaving them extra mindful and even panicky due to the responsibility that has been placed under their name now. Therefore, to alleviate this pressure, it is crucial to let out some of the steam in the pressure cooker, so to speak. Not too much, you still want the gravity of the dietary restrictions to hang in the air, but you don't want them fearing for your life to the point of even ruining the service they end up providing you in the end, whether it be serving you at a restaurant, or giving out treats at a birthday party. Humans have the tendency to blunder under excessive pressure, and it is that principle we are keeping in mind when we use that simple word "fun" and then follow it up with "deadly allergen exposure".

You'll notice here the stress I am placing on the words used. In the end, we cannot take our audience back in time to our past allergic reactions, all we can do is use our words to show them the way they should go when it comes to handling our needs in the present. Words hold sway over people, and they form the basis of advocacy. We want the message to be as clear as possible, because at the end of the day, no matter what we say, only we will walk away from the encounter knowing the genuine terror of a reaction. Therefore, do not rob yourself of the wellbeing that belongs to you. Use your words! The incentive is personal, so the effect should be advocacy characterized by confidence. This is your food, and your life. Don't trifle with it! Mastery in advocacy starts with experience.