I’m tired of people assuming I’m just anxious.
I (31F) became severely ill very suddenly about a year ago (ME/CFS). It’s a really sh*tty illness. Within 24 hours after a collapse, I lost sports, my job, and basically everything I had built and known. Just like that. On bad days, I didn’t even have the energy to go grocery shopping. Since then, I’ve been fighting my way back and have completely changed my life.
Any kind of stress, including infections, can make this illness worse, so I’m a bit more careful about getting sick—at least until I’m more stable again.
Today there’s a wedding, and the partner of a good friend is sick but is still coming— even though my close friends know about my situation and how important my health is to me right now. Since I’ve had to cancel all vacations, events, etc. for the past year, this was something I had really been looking forward to for weeks. Now I’m going there with a bad feeling and will probably leave early.
I feel like people are quick to label me as anxious or a hypochondriac, but no one really has a realistic understanding of what I’ve gone through this past year—especially on the bad days. Of course they can’t fully understand, and I don’t expect them to, but it’s still hard to be put in a box like that. I think most people would lose their mind after just a week of this.
I guess I just needed to get this off my chest. Please don’t judge people who are chronically ill. Living with something like this is already hard enough.