18/11/2025
Ohh- and the pain of remembering when we COULD quickly do things! Le sigh… 😔
🔷💠 Why People with Chronic Illness(es) Can’t “Just Quickly” Do Things 💠🔷
Explaining why “just quickly” doing something isn’t possible for people with chronic illnesses is like trying to explain gravity to someone living on the moon.
What looks like “just popping to the shop,” “just swinging by for tea,” or “just making a quick dinner” can feel like preparing for a full-scale expedition with no guarantee of making it home.
For many of us, “quickly” doesn’t exist anymore.
We’re not antisocial. We’re not unreliable. We’re not being dramatic. We’re living in bodies that operate on entirely different rules.
🔷 The Myth of “Quick”:
For healthy people, getting up, throwing on a coat, and leaving the house might take five minutes. For someone with a chronic illness, even getting to the “coat” part can be a monumental task.
There is no spontaneous dash to the shops when your body requires a logistics plan just to stand up.
🔷 Energy Is a Precious, Finite Resource:
For people with conditions like ME, POTS, long COVID, autoimmune diseases, EDS, MCAS, dysautonomia, and more, energy isn’t something you can just “muster up.”
We don’t wake up with a full tank. Some of us wake up already running on fumes.
Even the smallest outing can drain what little energy we have for the entire day—or longer. “A quick cuppa” can mean a full-body crash hours later.
🔷 Symptom Fluctuations:
Our ability to do things isn’t consistent.
We may make it to the shop on Monday, but be unable to sit upright on Tuesday. There’s no way to predict which version of our body we’ll get each day.
This is why committing to anything—especially last-minute plans—is complicated, not careless.
🔷 Physical Barriers Others Don’t See:
For many, “quick” tasks aren’t quick—they’re physically punishing:
🔹 Standing in line can cause tachycardia, dizziness, or fainting.
🔹 Sitting in a café can mean battling sensory overload, pain, or nausea.
🔹 Walking a few steps can feel like running a marathon.
🔹 A short drive might leave us too weak to get out of the car.
🔹Being exposed to air fresheners, perfumes, cigarette smoke, pesticides and cleaning supplies can trigger long lasting mast cell reactions.
What looks like “just popping out” can mean hours, days, weeks or even months of recovery—if recovery comes at all.
🔷 Cognitive Dysfunction:
“Brain fog” makes even basic steps confusing:
🔹 Remembering where your keys are.
🔹 Planning the route.
🔹 Following conversations at tea.
A casual meet-up can feel like an exam you didn’t study for—draining and overwhelming.
🔷 No Simple Recovery Time:
Healthy people can rest after an outing. Chronically ill people may not bounce back "quickly".
What you call “a quick visit” might cost us the next few days, weeks or months of functioning.
🔷 Emotional Weight & Social Pressure:
Society treats spontaneity as a marker of connection. When we can’t just “pop over,” we’re seen as distant, flaky, or uninterested.
But behind every “I can’t” is a silent calculation of symptoms, pain, risk, and energy. We feel the guilt, too. We want to say yes. Our bodies say no.
🔷 We Are Not Flaky Friends:
This isn’t about disinterest, laziness, or lack of willpower. It’s about survival.
💠 We’re not unreliable.
💠 We’re not antisocial.
💠 We’re navigating a body that doesn’t cooperate.
💠 We want to do more than our bodies allow.
Sometimes we have to cancel. Sometimes we need weeks to prepare for a single outing. Sometimes “maybe” is the best we can offer.
🔷 To Friends, Family & Society:
If someone with chronic illness says they can’t “just” do something "quickly"—believe them. Offer flexibility, patience, and understanding. An invitation without pressure is a gift.
Our worth isn’t measured by how many plans we can keep. Our value isn’t in how fast we can move. Our strength is in surviving a life that requires careful pacing just to exist.
💬 Comment: What "quick" task(s) do you struggle with?
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