Kristen has stepped away from friends who doubt the reality of long COVID and focuses on more supportive relationships.
Transcript
I had friends that, again, gaslighted me and said, “You know, there are studies that long COVID is not a thing, it’s not true. You’re probably milking it.” Like, I would hear those comments. Or the one that really bugged me the most is, “Still? You’re still sick?” Like, that would kind of eat away at me, because it almost made me feel like I was doing it on purpose. It was really difficult. So, I stepped away from a lot of those people that continuously had those comments, and I tried to really surround myself with the people that believed me, were positive. So that number, those relationships shrunk dramatically … I feel like there was a grieving period, for sure, but I think I understand now, you know, who is really there to support me at my hardest moments in life, and those are the people that I value now more than ever. You know, people were sending flowers, they were sending food, they understood how long this was – and how much of a toll it took on our family, especially for my husband, who was managing a sick wife, two young kids. Yeah, relationships definitely changed over that period.
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