I see a lot of people on social media who are very positive despite having terrible medical conditions and disabilities, and they love their life. This makes me feel like I'm extremely weak mentally because I've got 3 chronic illnesses and I'm now likely to have a 4th which will stop me from doing a hobby which is the only thing I have in my life.
There's a guy on YouTube who got cut in half in an accident and he loves life, wants to live no matter what and says he has no depression and no trauma from that happened to him. I thought that can't be normal, but it seems I might be the one who's not normal by wanting to die because of this.
Starting with what you might need to hear before answering your questions.
- We shouldn't have to be strong, honestly. It's absolutely not fair, and if you feel weak that isn't something that should be a negative against you. You're allowed.
- What you see on Social Media is cultivated and always a tiny slice of reality. People only present what they want to. Some people don't like to complain or be negative online.
- Maybe cultivate a different social media experience. It sounds like you're seeing too much inspiration porn? I definitely complain a lot online and see others doing so.
- This:
Their brains reward centers make healthy levels of dopamine and serotonin despite being disabled . I think the reward centers are broken in some of our brains
Actual literal response to questions:
There's a LOT of variation among disabilities, and there's two models of disability depending on the individual and the disability and etc etc. You're comparing a huge spectrum of different things, which is probably the first issue?
Comparing, for instance, amputees with the chronically ill, is apples and oranges. Someone who "only" has an amputation but is otherwise healthy has a lot more energy and cognitive ability than someone with severe chronic fatigue.
But let's narrow it down specifically to the moderately-to-severely chronically ill, to the category me and you are in.
Personally, I don't have depression. I'm super traumatized, not totally by the illnesses so much as by people and medical professionals etc.
Simply, my brain chemistry is different from yours. It's unfair, and nothing either of us did. When I get depressed or sad 95% of the time it's because something is fucked up in my body/brain chemistry, even though I totally have justified reasons to be so. *shrugs* I'm sorry if it sounds like I'm flaunting it, I'm very aware that it's pure luck.
(Could yall in this thread try being slightly less ableist??? jeez)
Disclaimer: Like I said I'm also disabled and have chronic illnesses. I'm also autistic.