It’s difficult to tell someone that they shouldn’t be defined by their illness. Or, rather, it’s easy to tell someone, but it’s difficult to hear. It is impossible not to become defined by your illness, even to yourself, when everything you do is so closely intertwined with it. There is virtually no part of your life that you live like other people do—even the smallest detail is adjusted in some way—a way very possibly imperceptible from the outside. And then there is always the question of what you are allowed to define yourself by, if not by something that affects you more than any other
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