Do What You Can

Doing what you can, when you can, will help maintain your feelings of self-worth. By this I mean don’t use your illness as an excuse. For example, let’s say sometime in the future you have a job where you’re asked to work overtime one hour. If you are physically up to it, put in the extra time. Do what you can when you can. Don’t tell your boss, “Oh, I’m kind of having a pain crisis right now . . . blah, blah, blah,” when you really aren’t. When you lie about your condition, you give people cause to believe you are lazy or are exaggerating your very serious medical condition.

Show people you’re willing to do the work asked of you when well enough to do it. By doing so, people will be more considerate and less judgmental. Help them see from your honesty there are valid reasons why you sometimes can’t do as much as other days. Having this kind of work ethic—knowing you’re a good worker in spite of your health problems—will boost your feelings of self-worth.

I know in my life there have been instances where somebody asked me to do something that was too taxing for how I was feeling at the moment. Though they didn’t say so, it was clear to read from their expressions that they felt I was using my illness as an excuse to get out of work. Thankfully I have the confidence to know that has never been the case.