Have you heard this from well-intentioned coworkers?
“What can you do to improve your health?”
“How can we help you feel better?”
Folks don’t realize the effect of this framing on the chronically ill. There is no better. There’s coping. Accept and work with us as we are.
Have you felt this way?
“I feel a lot of guilt about bailing on my team when I just can’t on a given day.”
I feel this guilt. There’s a whole lot of internalized ableism in it that I haven’t been so good at working through. I’m a recovering workaholic who derived too much of my worth and identity through how much I could work.