When you were little, what did you want to be when you grew up?
Everyone had an answer, a doctor, lawyer, police officer, firefighter - all those "cool" jobs that little ones worship. Fast forward. Now you're in your twenties and really need to decide what you want to be. Still one of those "cool" jobs from when you were younger? Awesome, except you have a chronic illness. Arthritis, Lyme Disease, Lupus, Anxiety, etc. These can all be extremely debilitating in the work force.
There's set back number one. You want to be something that is important to you. For example, a doctor. You may have had a bad doctor at one point in your life and want to become a good doctor to make the world a better place. But what if your disease or disorder has limitations, like a suppressed immune system, that could make things difficult? Or what if you can't stand or sit for long periods of time? These are the types of physical set backs that can hinder the chronically ill community from doing what they love.
From the perspective of the chronically ill, we usually go for jobs that mean something to us, to give our life meaning when our illness has deprived us of that experience. In grade school we are always taught that we will grow up to be something great, but what if we have a set back that we cannot fix? It is my belief that we shouldn't have to change our dream because of a set back. Accommodations are made for a reason. But if every business asked themselves if they were doing everything they could to help their employees, they would probably say no. Certain businesses are losing out on the amazing and passionate minds of today because of chronic illness. But if there were better, more illness specific (person to person instead of general) accommodations, maybe this world would be a better place.
If limitations aren't enough. More than 40% of the USA is chronically ill. Thats over 40% of minds going to waste doing a job that they probably aren't passionate about or 40% of minds feeling terrible for taking multiple sick days because they work themselves silly, all for the same goal: to make a living. Think for a moment what the chronically ill population feels like. Most of the time, we feel like we aren't reaching our full potential, and sometimes that forces us to try harder and in some cases we overdo it and hurt ourselves. In other cases it makes us feel like inadequate humans... and this is where depression sets in. The world focuses so much more on occupations and making a living, because money makes the world go round, but they lose focus of health or even sanity in the process!
Think about all of the people that you know and think for one moment that if we were kinder and more tolerant of differences, what a better place this world would be. Chronically ill people could make such a difference but we need the help of others to realize our potential and work with us to make our dreams come true too. Be that person that suggests a change to make the work environment a more tolerant and healthy place.
