Carrie 1 asks for other people to respect her needs.

Transcript

I would always ask nicely, but making people accommodate you is also really important. I think I spent a lot of time when I first was sick, trying to not appear sick, and trying to not appear disabled and trying to adapt to everybody else’s needs. And then I realized as I got sicker, that I couldn’t do that anymore. And so for example, I have a sign on my door that says, “I will only open my door if you’re wearing a mask.” And I’ve had a single use mask in an envelope, because I don’t want to get COVID again. And so I’m just making sure that everybody comes to my house is masked, I just ask that. And I ask that people text me in ways that I can read. If they text me ginormous blocks of text, I can’t read it because of my cognitive dysfunction. So I ask them to break it up. I ask my friends to stay for maximum of 45 minutes when they visit. Because after that, I get too tired. So I just sort of started asking for what I need. And it’s been really helpful because I get what I need. And then I don’t get sicker by doing things. And so asking for what I need, and not being scared to do that has been really helpful. And I think part of it is self-acceptance. You have to accept that you need it.

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