Maturity
Having a great deal of maturity to handle a chronic and intractable illness is a must. I look at some of those that surround me and just know, that I am way ahead of them in maturity level. Maybe it's this disease, maybe it's my level of education, my values, the way I was raised. Whatever it is, I just handle things differently. One example is social media, but that will have to be saved for a post all in itself. Another example is responding to phone calls and text messages. I tend to respond within a reasonable amount of time, unless I am in an appointment or sleeping, I usually answer right away. I have had friends tell me "so sorry, I didn't get your message". Come on now, we don't live in the dinosaur age. There is a cell tower every so many miles. Lets get real...the reason you didn't respond is because you didn't want to go to that lunch I invited you to. Just grow the balls to say "I am sorry, I can't or didn't want to