Vitiligo World Awareness Day

---English---
On 1993, the King of pop, Michael Jackson, revealed his skin disorder to the world on Oprah. Michael Jackson was born with Vitiligo. This confession is a turning point.
Many people once believe that Vitiligo is a curse disease that connected with devil, that has to be alienated because its contagious and deadly.
Now let me get things straight.
Vitiligo is a skin condition where the immune system destroys the melanocytes (skin pigment), causing white albino patches on skin.
It is NOT contagious, no leads to death.
However, the Vitiligans may suffer from social and self esteem problem.
I lived with Vitiligo since 13 years old. Long story..... You may check it out on my previous post.
After years of hiatus, my Vitiligo now takes control again. It is spreading so fast in my 23-24 years old.
I struggled for this for my whole life. It is so hard to accept this as the part of me. But after all, I gotta live with it. There is nothing I can do about it. Its incurable tho.
For now on, I rely on make up. There is no day where I go out without concealer and foundation on. (Wait for my next post about Concealing Vitiligo Spot)
I still have no brave to face the world with bare face. I still feel beasty, and different, and weird, and disgusted, and......oh!
So since today 25 June is Vitiligo World Awareness Day, I am sending the message to you peps, that we are just different. There is no reason you should alienated and avoid us.
Over 100 million of us in Earth suffer as a result of social stigma and severe psychological burden that result. Some of us are the victim of ostracism and discrimination.
Awareness and empathy lead humanity to the best form of themselves. Find out more before you judge. We are trying so hard to blend and look normal everyday only to avoid harsh comment and rude stare.
Michael Jackson lived with judgemental comments around him causing him suffered from terrible insomnia. Take note that MJ did not died because of Vitiligo.
The legacy continues.
I quote Magneto on X-Men Days of Future Past scene:
Because we are different. Because you are afraid of our gift. To my brother and sister out there, no more hiding, no more suffering. You have lived in the shadow and shame and fear for too long. Come out. Fight together.
Stay Strong Vitiligans!
---Bahasa Indonesia---
Pada tahun 1993, Michael Jackson mengakui penyakit kulitnya, Vitiligo pada dunia melalui interview bersama Oprah Winfrey. Pengakuan ini menorehkan sejarah karena berhasil membuka mata dunia terhadap Vitiligo.
Banyak orang yang tidak paham tentang Vitiligo, dan tidak mau mencari tahu, tapi malah membuat pengertian sendiri terhadap penyakit ini. Mereka menyamaratakan penyakit kulit, bahwa Vitiligo bisa menular karena disebabkan oleh jamur kulit, dan bisa menyebabkan cacat dan kematian seperti Panu, Kusta atau Lepra. Bahkan di negara saya tinggal, penyakit ini dianggap sebagai kutukan yang memalukan.
Kalimat-kalimat tersebut menancap dengan baik di otak saya, sejak Vitiligo saya muncul di umur 13 tahun. Cap buruk masyarakat membuat saya tumbuh menjadi gadis remaja introvert, penyendiri, dan gampang minder.
Begitupun dengan MJ yang hidup dengan banyak cap buruk, berakibat insomnia kronis hingga akhirnya sang raja Pop meninggal pada 25 Juni.
Sekarang jejak MJ akan kami lanjutkan lewat Hari Peduli Vitiligo Dunia, 25 Juni.
Vitiligo adalah penyakit kesalahan imun dan genetik. Sistem imun kami rusak dan menganggap bahwa pigmen adalah zat jahat yang harus dihancurkan. Maka itu sebagian pigmen kami hilang menjadi albino. Vitiligo tidak menular, dan tidak menyebabkan kematian. Saya ulangi, tidak menular sama sekali dengan interaksi apapun.
Penyakit ini juga tidak menyebabkan kematian, bahkan kami sama sekali tidak pernah merasa sakit atau gatal.
Selain MJ ada juga Chantelle Winnie Harlow yang berhasil jadi supermodel dengan Vitiligo nya. Bahkan masuk sebagai finalis America Next Top Model cycle 21. Lihat kan? Kondisi kulit kami yang sebagian orang anggap kekurangan sebenarnya adalah hasil karya seni tangan Tuhan.
Vitiligo pada saya sudah saya jelaskan di post terdahulu. Saya senang sekali karena tulisan tersebut mencapai hit readers. Saya juga senang karena tulisan tersebut dibaca lewat orang-orang yang googling dengan keyword "does vitiligo contagious?"
Betul kan, kalau mau tahu ya harus cari tahu. Pahami dengan benar. Bukan malah kasih komentar dan cap ini itu.
Karena pemahaman yang baik mengantarkan pada empati dan menjauhkan diskriminasi.
Peace!

Vitiligo and Me (#1) - English

This post took a long time to write and publish. It takes everything to brought myself here.
But I want to all the girl out there who has the same story as me, know that they are not alone.
Here is my story, in English post.

At the age of 19, I knew that I have Vitiligo since 13yo.
A skin disorder that happen when your immune system mistakenly attacks some part of your own body. In Vitiligo, the immune system destroys the melanocytes (pigment color in skin), causing white albino parts in skin.
The cause is not yet to be found as well as the cure. And because it is connected with genetic and auto immune system, means this disease is incurable.
The sky felt like crumble into my head. The words "incureable" and "can grow fast" were like a bullet into my head.
I struggled years to get the cure. But nothing changed until now.

Now, I'm working on my feelings, on my self esteem.
However, I do have faith, that someday I will woke up in morning, seeing mirror, and everything is okay and normal.
I never give up on believing miracle. The fog should lift very soon and things will begin to fall into place and to make sense. I learned that I am perfectly healthy. I still can do so many things in life, walk, work, eat, laugh, sport, shopping, sooo many things. And the most important thing is that I still can be friends with other. I will not pass this disease to other people, because Vitiligo does not contagius.
I repeat Vitiligo does not contagious or transmitted.
So I don't really have big problem actually.
It's just I'm different with others.

Well I lied. It is a big problem.
I bet we girls have thousand reason to be worried. Although Vitiligo is usually not harmful medically, its emotional and psychological effects can be devastating. We girls who are often particularly concerned about their appearance, can be devastated by widespread Vitiligo.
It is heart breaking to know that this will change me someday. But I promise that I will be the same person inside. I will not let this shit bitch controlled and destroyed my life. Oops, sorry, inappropriate words! :)
Well yes I hate Vitiligo so much!
However now I realized that this is the part of me. I couldn't blame Cosmos. Vitiligo makes my connection with God and family getting closer.
I once write down the positive things and blessings I got from this disease, and I lost numbers. There are sooo many.
See, there are always good thing behind every misery, depends on our perspective.

This post goal is to make people aware of Vitiligo.
It is important that people become aware of this disorder. This can play a role in empowering people with Vitiligo like me to take more control over their personal lives and their health and well-being.
Vitiligo disorders are hurt enough, our heart is breaking everyday by only seeing a mirror. Our nights are hard worrying about how others will react tomorrow, what part of my skin will affected tomorrow. It's gonna be harder if you people alienate us.

We are obviously not normal, but inside, we are.

This post also published in Bahasa Indonesia, below. :)