4:25am July 14, 2014

When chronically ill people watch TV or play video games, we aren’t just goofing off or being lazy.

Not that we’re incapable of goofing off or being lazy, but hear me out.

Watching TV and playing video games both put you into a mild trance-like state that makes you less aware of your surroundings.  This has the side-effect of making you less aware of physical pain and discomfort.  Because of this, a lot of people with chronic pain or chronic illness turn to TV and video games as a cheap and easy means of pain control, or otherwise distraction from unpleasant symptoms.

You should never make us feel ashamed for doing this, because then we often internalize it, and worse, stop doing it when we need to do it for fear of being criticized.

Also?  Sometimes television is the only thing a person’s brain can handle doing when they’re really, really sick and weak.  Too sick to read, too sick to play video games, too sick to use a computer, but still able to watch TV.  This becomes essential to keep from getting bored out of our skulls.  Especially when you’re the sort of person who only becomes bored when you’re sick. 

You shouldn’t judge people for playing video games or watching TV anyway.  But it’s particularly cruel to judge people who are doing it as a means of pain relief or otherwise dealing with symptoms of a chronic illness.

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