No spoons

26. I'm so tired.

[insidestory1]

I find it very offensive that the more unwell you are, the more things you have to do to maintain your health. Things like following special diets, going to medical appointments, making big and important decisions about what treatments to use. At the same time, the more unwell you are the less energy you have to do all of these extra things. It seems grossly unfair.

[kaijuno]

doctors be like "we have no idea what causes this extremely mysterious illness" and the illness is something that affects 1 in 8 women

[goyangiwonbin]

And when you want answers, the only things they tell you to do are: lose weight, and start birth control

So frustrating to not be taken seriously

[panulyx]

Too much movement makes your joints hurt and too little movement also makes your joints hurt. This would imply that there's an optimal amount of movement that allows your joints to not hurt. This is a lie.

[cosmicconstruct]

I promise I'm really smart it's just all my best thoughts get lost in The Fog

[insidestory1]

I think one of the biggest misconceptions about fatigue is that it's just a more extreme version of tiredness. Fatigue and tiredness are not the same thing. The biggest difference between them is that tiredness goes away if you rest, but fatigue doesn't. When you suffer from fatigue, your body keeps draining you even while you're lying down or sleeping. It's like a leak's been opened up somewhere and your energy keeps draining away no matter what you do. All you can do is wait and hope that at some point the flow will stop.

[cosmicconstruct]

"Why do I feel sick" my brother in christ you have a chronic illness

[were-canislupusarctos]

I sure do love having “my body hurts, goes numb, and is tired all the time and we don’t know why” disorder. It pairs very well with my “I have a constant need to be doing things that I enjoy or I will implode from boredom” disorder.

This post is about fibromyalgia and ADHD.

[iloveyoudeanwinchester]

I got denied for disability after waiting 2 ½ years for a response and the wording in the letter pissed me off. So I wrote a poem about it.

Image id in alt text

Poem transcript under the cut

You are not disabled under our rules.

Your body may be in constant pain. 

Your back may bend in all the wrong ways and your muscles may feel like sunburned taffy in a press. 

You may be too dizzy to stand or sit for more than a few minutes at a time. 

You may have chronic migraines and chronic fatigue and a chronic sadness from a childhood lacking love. 

You may have a dysfunctional thyroid and dysautonomia. 

You may have to sleep more than you are awake and you may have to use a wheelchair or cane any time you are able to leave the house. 

But aren’t you aware the medications you take to make your pain more bearable can also make you sleepier? 

Aren’t you aware that everyone wants an excuse to not do the dishes and your extreme back pain is laughable? 

Aren’t you aware that your life is expendable? 

Aren’t you aware that we don’t care about you at all? 

You are able to work some; you are able to work more. 

Just adapt. 

Just push yourself more. 

Just break your body more.

Just be a good little number on a screen and stop screaming as we churn you through the system and beat you to a pulp. 

This is because you are not disabled under our rule.

[moth-sauce]

"sickness, self-portrait" 10x10 acrylic on canvas

about feeling defined by illness and disability, and that all I'll ever be is a sick person trying to masquerade as something more.

[nonbeans]

The mind numbing anger of chronic fatigue is getting irritable because you're so fucking tired but you really feel like you SHOULDNT BE.

You SHOULD be able to sit at a desk and do work. You SHOULD be able to just watch a freaking YouTube video. You SHOULD be able to just eat fucking lunch.

But you can't. Because your eyes are closing and it's like temporary death is taking you.

[chronicallydragons]

anyone else ever wish they could lie down harder? Like, I'm already horizontal, but I need more horizontal. I need to be absorbed by the floor. I think that would fix me

[skiptomy]

everyone else got roses

[chronicpaingirlie]

shaking myself (very gently) . being in pain takes a lot of energy!!!!!! being in pain is exhausting!!!!!!! you are not lazy or weak because you need to spend so much time resting, this is your body coping with how much pain you’re in literally 24/7!!!!!!!!!

[lupusbaby]

Being chronically ill is like

“It’s fine”

“It’s fine”

“It’s fine”

*complete mental breakdown because you can’t do this anymore*

“It’s fine”

[fibro-memes]

[bee-fox]

I think that it's really important for people to realize that being disabled is traumatic. genuinely. your body and brain feel like they are breaking down and wrong. you are in constant heavy stress from stuff like chronic pain. most disabled people i know have a somewhat regular emotional break down from the trauma of it all. and we are expected to just smile through it by society, to not be in the way, to not be an issue.

[thisaliennerd]

chronic pain diagnoses are all like yeah we don't know what this is or why it happens. we also don't know how to treat it. good luck out there soldier