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Stop Telling Me To Be Optimistic.

If one more person, one more time, says that I’m “not being very optimistic,” I may scream. Do I WANT to say “I CAN’T” all the time? Of course not!
My boyfriend has a “well if you can do ____, that means you can do ____, habit. Where he gets these equivalencies, I don’t know - logic, I suppose. Logic, however, has never done me any favors with this illness. Quite the opposite.
So anyway, when I tip-toe through an explanation of why driving twenty minutes to a 5 minute doc appointment doesn’t mean I can drive twenty minutes to go apple picking; I get “well it doesn’t seem different to me” ... and “I’m just trying to be more optimistic.”
This simply isn’t ABOUT optimism. I bet YOU HERE all see the difference between the two.
“You could be more optimistic” feels pretty similar to “you could just try harder”... when I’m trying as hard as I can to cope with this ever-changing, complicated, life-robbing monster of an illness.
Anyone else get the “optimism” finger pointed at you?
HOW do you HANDLE it? I am at a loss.☹️

  1. It sounds like you have a boyfriend who is very uneducated about the realities of chronic illness. He needs to do some reading. Really sorry he isn't being more supportive of you. Hugs.

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