Most of us know the basic definition of a chronic illness –- an illness that lasts months, years, or for the rest of your life, that changes or limits your activities of daily living due to pain, fatigue or immobility, and that may have some type of treatment, but no actual long-term cure.
But here are some things people with chronic illnesses wish you knew about it.
• “Better today” doesn’t mean healed—it just means “not as bad today.”
• Being forgotten cuts deeper than being excluded.
• Feeling good is terrifying because the of the crash that always follows.
• Good days come with guilt—because of the good days, some people refuse to believe the bad days are real.
• Saying “no” all the time makes you feel like a burden, not a friend.
• Managing a chronic illness is an unpaid, exhausting, full-time job.
• Resting isn’t lazy, but it still feels that way.
• Doing my best today is very different than my best on another day.
• You mourn the person you could have been.
• Life moves forward without you, and you’re stuck watching from the sidelines.
• You want to do things. You believe you can. You try—only to crash and burn. Sometimes, you’re so desperate to be well enough that you convince yourself you are, only to fail miserably.
