I’m about to turn 18, my chronic illness didn’t let me develop essential life skills, I feel lost
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Never have posted on or really interacted with Reddit that much, but I just feel like I have no one to talk to or get advice. Apologies if I get anything wrong. I spent extensive amounts of my childhood either bed-bound or housebound due to chronic fatigue (with various diagnosis, but that’s not important). As I’ve grown, it’s gotten better, but can still come back in various forms: low level constant fatigue as I attend school full time, or overwhelming fatigue as I’m bedbound and have to be wheeled to the bathroom. In November I got really bad and didn’t leave the house for a couple months, but I am slowly coming out of this spell and am able to attend some classes of my last year of high school. During these spells, I am incredibly dependent on my parents to get me food, help me with daily tasks, accompany me on trips, etc. I’m almost 18, and I feel so behind. My friends have jobs, have their full drivers license, travel solo, everything I wish I could do. Classic peer pressure, I know, but it hurts so much to see what I could accomplish by this age. Because I was (and am) so dependent on my parents to help me through life, I feel like I’ve developed no life skills. I can’t cook, don’t have my drivers licence, incredibly socially awkward, and feel like I have such little knowledge of how the world works. I have never been able to work/get a job, as my health is too fluctuating to be able to commit. The spells where I am healthy enough to attend school full time leaves me with no energy to do anything else. I just feel like I’ve missed a crucial part of developing as a person and transitioning into adulthood. My parents give me money weekly because I can’t provide for myself. Bless them, I couldn’t ask for better parents, but I don’t deserve it. I wanted to go to University next year, but am almost certain I’ll have to take a gap year to make the transition to caring for myself easier. It sucks. I’ve always had a drive to work, study, and learn, independently. I still feel like I’m twelve years old. It doesn’t help that I’m incredibly skinny and have a baby-face. I used to go to the gym when I was healthier, and I gained some muscle + weight. But that’s not possible now due to my current state of health. I hate knowing that the reason I am so skinny and frail is because of how unhealthy I was during childhood, and still am. I have no one to talk about this to, I need to get it out. I’m writing this at night and will probably regret it in the morning, but yolo I guess. This is half a rant, half me asking for advice. Has anyone had a similar experience? What things have you done to help make the transition to independence easier? I just feel so lost.
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