It can be difficult for an able bodied person to know what to say to someone living with chronic illness. You want to show empathy, but “I know how you feel” hurts. Here’s why.
So much love for this! If you have never lived with ongoing chronic pain, where you have to keep going or absolutely cannot keep going, you just don’t get it. I have never lived with chronic fatigue, but I have chronic arm and shoulder pain, from neuritis and cervical neck issues, so I do know the difference between chronic, and occasional - they are worlds apart.
Makes me so angry, on behalf of those who live with disabling conditions - mine have only spiked into that level a few months/weeks at a time, since the first injury in 2008, and now in retirement I am pretty much ‘normal’ provided I STOP when my body says STOP, and recover sufficiently before starting again. So I can attempt to imagine what CFS might be like, but really - I Do Not Know how sufferers feel…!
And such a difference, even with chronic issues, based on the length of suffering - I may have had occasional bouts of disability, but that does not enable me to know what it is like to have a long-term, life-restricting disability - again, worlds apart.
I’ve been known the reply ‘oh do you, tell me about it, shall we compare notes?’ It doesn’t go down well, they normally get embarrassed or cross. But I’ve made my point. It really bugs me when people belittle my experience.
So much love for this! If you have never lived with ongoing chronic pain, where you have to keep going or absolutely cannot keep going, you just don’t get it. I have never lived with chronic fatigue, but I have chronic arm and shoulder pain, from neuritis and cervical neck issues, so I do know the difference between chronic, and occasional - they are worlds apart.
Makes me so angry, on behalf of those who live with disabling conditions - mine have only spiked into that level a few months/weeks at a time, since the first injury in 2008, and now in retirement I am pretty much ‘normal’ provided I STOP when my body says STOP, and recover sufficiently before starting again. So I can attempt to imagine what CFS might be like, but really - I Do Not Know how sufferers feel…!
So true! There is a world of difference between acute/occasional and chronic.
And such a difference, even with chronic issues, based on the length of suffering - I may have had occasional bouts of disability, but that does not enable me to know what it is like to have a long-term, life-restricting disability - again, worlds apart.
I’ve been known the reply ‘oh do you, tell me about it, shall we compare notes?’ It doesn’t go down well, they normally get embarrassed or cross. But I’ve made my point. It really bugs me when people belittle my experience.
This is the perfect reply!