Why don’t people understand? Will they ever understand?
The answers are simple. No. No one will ever understand what you are going through. Not if they read everything about your illness, not if they are a doctor, not if they are your best friend and not if they are your family. Not even if they have the same illness. They can try. But they won’t.
Every single person is effected differently by illnesses, the treatments and the management of it. Some will recover quicker. Some will be allergic to something that works amazingly for you. It all comes down to the individual that it is effecting.
Some people are sympathetic towards what you are going through, and that’s great. Some people aren’t. And that’s fine too. The sympathetic ones are the people that feel sorry for you. But even if you are sympathetic it doesn’t mean that you understand... to understand you need to be empathetic... Empathy is the biggest thing in what I’m trying to say. Some people have no sympathy and no empathy. That’s great. You are the only person that it will or will not bother. But don’t come at me having a go when I put my own health before you. Yes, if you are a part of my life then you’re life is important to me, but no, I will not put anyone before myself unless it is my children. My health and my children come before you. I’m all for helping people, but not before I’ve helped myself. If that sounds selfish then let it. The most important person in my life is me and my children.
If you show sympathy, than thank you for showing that you care, but I’d like to see more people showing empathy. Show me that you are at least trying to understand. Don’t sit there and belittle me for something I can not control, but am trying to manage and maintain.
With an illness like Cystic Fibrosis, you sometime have to be selfish. And if that’s a problem to other people, then they’re not worth your time!
Love Kš
