A few years back, in my early 30s, I was diagnosed with ADHD. It was something I had suspected for decades, but was always told I didn’t have it, that all my concentration problems came from my OCD (which was diagnosed when I was 8 years old). The diagnosis was … Read more
My birthday just past, and while I used to love birthdays, I’ve come to hate them since getting sick. Maybe it’s because I’m at a “certain age”, maybe it’s because I’m chronically ill, but I just want to skip over it. It was my 37th birthday the other day, and
How many times a day does a person exchange simple pleasantries with someone they see? “How are you?”, “How are things?”, “What’s going on?” The greetings are endless, and when you have one or more chronic illness, they are more weighted than people realize.
Our responses will often be “I’m
People who suffer with chronic illnesses have so much to deal with on a daily basis, and on top of it all, so many people don’t even believe us when we say we’re sick. On top of everything, trolling exists, and people think it’s necessary to bring down people who
When people hear you’re chronically ill and unable to work, they will often say things like “Lucky! I wish I could stay home and do nothing all day!”, as if we’re just sitting home relaxing all day, having the time of our lives. What people don’t realize though is we
It’s been a full decade since my symptoms first began, and while so much has happened (yet somehow also nothing at all), it feels like it was just yesterday. A little over 10 years ago now, I was what I would consider a generally healthy person, at least in comparison.
Something I’ve thought about recently is the importance of distinguishing the difference between sympathy and empathy, and how it relates to chronic illness. Once you understand the difference between the two, you’ll understand why we’re looking for your empathy, not your sympathy.
Most people don’t really think about what each
I’ve recently come to the realization that I tend to downplay my symptoms and how bad I’m actually feeling to my doctors. This is something I didn’t even realize I did, and once I realized, it was both a shock to myself and an eye-opening observation. After years of being
Out of all my chronic illnesses and conditions (and there are a lot), Delayed Sleep Phase Syndrome is probably one of my least talked about, but also one of my most bothersome. It’s one that causes me the most problems in a lot of ways, but no one understands it,
The first time I heard of the five stages of grief was on an episode of one of my all-time favorite shows, Frasier. In the episode, titled a punny “Good Grief” (Season 6, Episode 1), Frasier deals with the loss of his job as if it were the loss of