My Body’s Favorite Hobby? Gaslighting Me Into Thinking I’m Fine Until I Move. Then It’s Like, ‘Haha,

It's always, "ew, you smoke? You should quit. Have you tried patches and gum?" and never "oh, you smoke? Do you need help organizing the working class against capitalism and the American healthcare system, so that you can eventually have access to proper mental and physical healthcare instead of being forced to rely on nicotine and weed to sand the edges off your disabled brain and get some relief for your chronic pain? In the meantime, here's a light. Sorry you have to self-medicate in our fucked-up society."

Anyway, join a union.

Does anyone else with chronic fatigue feel like you can barely talk to people anymore?? I don't even mean like from a "I'm too exhausted to interact with people" standpoint, I mean like you can barely think of things to keep a conversation moving and end up making random sounds or going silent for super long periods of time to the point where it's unsettling and makes people distance themselves... idk, it almost feels like the worse my fatigue gets, the more lonelier I get because I can barely entertain a conversation and talk

asking myself “is this really who i want to be forever?” a lot lately

I was accidentally 15 one time and basically there’s Problems forever because of this

having insomnia when having a chronic illness sucks!

my chronic illness flares up cause i don't get enough sleep, but i don't get enough sleep cause of my chronic illness

I would like to see more people talk about how jobs treat disabled employees.

I used to prep, wash dishes, and cook at mellow mushroom. I had chronic pain that wasn't NEARLY as bad as it is today, but it was still very debilitating. I told my employer "i cannot stand more than 4 to 6 hours. I CANNOT do shifts longer than this due to my illness." And even though i made my boundaries VERY clear, everyday i worked it was 8 hours at the least and 10 or 12 at the most. I would go up to my manager and say "look i really need to leave, my shift is over, my chronic pain is killing me." And he'd say "we really need to here, you HAVE to push through." And so i did, and after one, ONE month of that job my crps got incredibly worse to the point where i could no longer walk my dog around the block which was .5 miles. I quit, and that was FOUR years ago, and ever since that day I HAVE BEEN BEDRIDDEN AND HAVE TO USE A WHEELCHAIR. It is my biggest regret in life.

My best friend who has seen my whole journey has recently developed undiagnosed chronic pain, and she is in the EXACT same scenario i was 4 years ago. Busting her ass at a pizza place with extreme pain that hurts her so much she tells me "im in so much pain i don't even feel like a person." She doesn't feel LUCID. And her manager and coworkers are saying the same thing "if you don't help us you will let us down, we'll be in the shit."

That job thats hurting you isn't fucking worth it. I promise you no money is worth losing all your physical abilities and never getting them back. Your coworkers and boss do not give a shit about you, so don't you dare suffer for them. They will never understand your struggle and they will never try. They truly think being understaffed is worse than whatever pain you experience. They would rather you permanently damage yourself than inconvenience them. FUCK THEM. DON'T FUCKING DO IT!