Abled people have two modes when it comes to health issues:
Sick/injured but still doing things
Sick/injured and not doing things
What they don't understand is that disabled people don't have two distinct modes.
A disabled person can't stay in mode 1 for long. Why? Because you can't push through a health issue forever. Most health conditions can be pushed through temporarily, but the longer a person pushes through it the more exhausted they become, and becoming exhausted often increases the severity of a health issue, which means the person has to work even harder, which makes them even more exhausted. If the condition is temporary, then this isn't so bad, because the person just has to manage until they're better, and then the exhaustion goes away because they're not pushing through anything anymore. But if it's chronic, then eventually the exhaustion builds up, and the person is forced to switch to mode 2.
But a disabled person can't stay in mode 2 for long either. Why? Because you can't do nothing forever. When a person does nothing, they're not making money, and their life begins to pass them by. If a condition is temporary, then this isn't so bad, because the person just has to wait until they're better, and then they can continue working and having a life. But if it's chronic, then eventually the person goes broke and their life falls apart, so they have to switch to mode 1.
The life of a disabled person is a balancing act, trying to do things so that they can make a living and have a life, but also having to limit what they do so that they don't become too exhausted to do things. This balancing act is something that abled people just can't understand, because for them, there's always an end in sight.
This is linked to disability binarism. Abled people expect disabled people to be in only one of these modes, because abled people are only ever in one of these modes. They don't understand that the vast majority of disabled people are partially in both of these modes, because staying in only one mode is not sustainable.
