Does My Chronic Illness Define Me?

Finally coming to terms with what it means to be defined by illness and the dangers of false equivalence.

Photo by maxime caron on Unsplash

Last week, I read this quote on This Thing They Call Recovery’s Instagram page:

“I am defined and limited by my chronic illness, but it is not the total sum of who I am.”

I understand what it means to be limited by my chronic illness: I am outspoken about learning how to work within your limitations to live a full life beyond illness.

But until reading this quote, I didn’t immediately understand what it means to be defined by my chronic illness and how that is separate from recognizing that it isn’t the totality of who I am.

Am I making the effort?

I have written about how chronic illness isn’t the center of my life, but that it does affect every single part of my life. That is a reality that I’ve had to make peace with. It is something I consistently remind myself of, especially since so much of my oeuvre involves writing about life with chronic illness.

I have found a new voice and purpose through my diagnosis, and that is the so-called silver lining I choose to pay the most attention to when I think about how my life has changed over the past three years.