Living with Addison's Patients Support Community – Support Group for people affected with Addison's Disease_Education & Science

Skip to main contentLiving with Addison's Patients Support CommunityToggle navigationHOMEABOUTCOMMUNITYCONTACTAre you affected by Addison's Disease?JoinWelcome Members!Welcome to Living with Addisons Community!Our mission at Ben’s Friends is to ensure that patients living with rare diseases or chronic illnesses, as well as their caregivers, family, and friends, have a safe and supportive place to connect with others like them.Addison’s disease is a disorder that occurs when your body produces insufficient amounts of certain hormones produced by your adrenal glands. In Addison’s disease, your adrenal glands produce too little cortisol and often insufficient levels of aldosterone as well. One way the body keeps itself in balance is by using chemical messengers called hormones to regulate various functions. … In Addison’s disease, called primary adrenal insufficiency, the adrenal glands don’t make enough of a hormone called cortisol, or less often, a related hormone called aldosterone.This site is a virtual community intended to be a safe place for patients and family members as young as age 12, to visit for information, discussion, venting and mutual support. Members come from many backgrounds. Some have a strong religious faith, and others no faith; some are children and others adults, rich and poor, graduate educated or taught by life. Our common denominators are that we share a life journey, and we try to help each other.Read More… How is Ben’s Friends Different from Social Media and Other Support Sites? Our mission at Ben’s Friends is to ensure that patients living with rare diseases or chronic illnesses, as well as their caregivers, family, and friends, have a safe and supportive place to connect with others like them.We’re interested in you as a person, and in your struggles as a rare disease patient. But we don’t want to know your name or where you live. We won’t even allow you to use your real name when you register for one of our communities. Because when it comes to medical things, anonymity is important in our googly universe. Your information is never shared, and your activity never tracked by adware.When Ben’s Friends asks for the country and region you live in, that’s in case your fellow members can recommend local resources and help, and so everyone knows what kind of medical system there is where you live. That’s important when it comes to giving and getting support. Because we are all about support, and we’re all in this together.. Ben’s Friends: Safe and Supportive. And anonymous to keep it that way. Why create an account? Posts on the different Ben’s Friends communities can be read by anyone on the internet. You can browse through the different topics and find most of the information you’re looking for but there are many things you won’t be able to do unless you create an account. These include:Making your own posts. Although you’re able to find useful information just by reading other members’ posts, you might still have a lot of questions in your mind. Either you want to start a new topic to talk about them in detail or you want to reply to a comment on a thread. These won’t be possible unless you create a new user account.Viewing other members’ profiles. Member profiles include information about the country or region they are from, whether they are a patient or a caregiver, and details about their disease and treatments. Maybe you came across an interesting post and you want to learn more about the member. Or maybe you’re looking for members who are from the same country as you. Having a user account allows you to see other member profiles and find information that may be relevant. Sending private messages. Aside from being able to post publicly and commenting on a thread, having a user account also allows you to send private messages both to other members and moderators. In case you want to discuss a topic only with a specific person, this is possible by sending private messages when you have created your account.Click here to create an account and join. Latest DiscussionsSome of Ben’s Friends secrets to maintaining healthy communitiesby BF_Writer on August 30, 2022 Sascha Gallardo – October 26, 2020Ben’s Friends has been successfully running online patient communities for thirteen years and it just continues to grow. We are home to the most active communities of AVM survivors, people living with psoriatic arthritis, fibromyalgia, and eagle syndrome, to name a few.Thanks to our moderators who dedicate their time and effort to ensure that our […]Spotlight on Our Moderatorsby BF_Writer on August 30, 2022 Ben Munoz – October 31, 2019When we recently asked our moderators what they love about their role, we got a variety of reactions. Not surprising: each of our “mods” does their job in their own way! Some are very active in the conversation, and others take a more hands-off approach, intervening only when there might be a problem.We think that’s one of the ways our forty-some community […]“Rare Diseases Doesn’t Have Us” – Foot and Float to Raise Awarenessby BF_Writer on August 30, 2022 Ben Munoz – August 15, 2019We did It! Ten Ben’s Friends members traveled for more than 500 miles on foot and afloat to raise awareness and to raise money to start new Ben’s Friends Communities. This proves that although “WE HAVE RARE DISEASE -RARE DISEASE DOESN’T HAVE US”.We started the night before departing for Glacier National Park.McKenna caught her first West Slope Cutthroat […]When “Rather Rare” Becomes “Done Well”by BF_Writer on August 30, 2022 Ben Munoz – November 1, 2019I remember talking, not so long ago, with one of our AVM veterans. He has been battling this disease for 41 years now. When it was first discovered no one within 500 miles knew what it even was, let alone how to treat it. He says that it was a very scary time. Not only because of major surgery as an 8th grader but also because that is what I call, “rather […]Our New Ben’s Friends Classroomby BF_Writer on August 26, 2022 Clasina Field – November 1, 2019You must be wondering what Seenie has been doing these days. Well, I’ve been building our Google Classrooms and library where our Moderators and Interns will be able to learn the skills and tricks of the Moderator Trade. Right now, I’m about to stock our library with reading material and things like Slide Guides.It will all be set up for independent […]Spotlight on Our Board Member: John Stamlerby BF_Writer on August 26, 2022 Ben Munoz – November 9, 2019John Stamler, Ben’s Friends’ treasurer and a rare disease survivor himself, had a conversation with Garry Turner in the Episode 81 of Value through Vulnerability podcast.John shared his inspiring work as a mentor to startups and his admiration for the entrepreneurs he works with who are so passionate about what they believe in.He also talked about his […]Ben’s Friends Members to Benefit from Cutting-edge Health Data Management Toolby BF_Writer on August 26, 2022 Sascha Gallardo – January 14, 2020Members of Ben’s Friends patient communities can soon take advantage of a state-of-the-art technology that will enable them to manage their medical information in a secure multilingual digital tool, give them access to an online referral service for physicians and clinics, and let them participate in research that will benefit the rare disease community. […]Ben’s Friends Brings Learning About Patient Support to the Next Levelby BF_Writer on August 25, 2022 Sascha Gallardo – January 20, 2020Ben’s Friends created a user-friendly online training facility that makes learning about providing support to patients simple and easy. Dubbed as Ben’s Friends U or Ben’s Friends University, it makes use of Google Classroom to create one virtual classroom for Moderators and another one for the Interns.Using this G-suite tool, the Ben’s Friends team is […]Spotlight on our Member: John aka Jokhere from Living with Polyneuropathy Communityby BF_Writer on August 25, 2022 Sascha Gallardo – March 7, 2020Polyneuropathy is often characterised by numbness, tingling sensation, burning pain and even paralysis of the hands and feet which can later on progress to the other parts of the body such as the arms and legs.This condition can be either acute, which appears suddenly but resolves slowly, or chronic which progresses gradually.It has different classifications […]Hanging Out is Helping Out: The Cycle of Helping Each Other at Ben’s Friendsby BF_Writer on August 25, 2022 Clasina Field – May 21, 2020Helping others is good for your body as well as your mind. That’s what the article The Science of Helping Out said, anyway. And when the scientists measured the various benefits, they concluded that the giver gains at least as much as the receiver does. Everyone wins when we help each other. How great is that?So, as Tara Parker-Pope explained, “[t]o help […] SPONSORSSearchWhy Joinh1 {text-align: left;}p {text-align: justify; font-weight: 300; color:black}div {text-align: center;}If you have a rare disease, you know how lonely it can be to cope with symptoms and to seek out treatment. When you join a patient community, you realize that you're not alone in this. Join (Click Sign up or Login)