Living In a Fantasy: Anime x F! Reader Oneshots

{A/N} (NOT ABOUT THE BOOK)

Hi! So this has nothing to do with anime or the book, I'm really just writing this to be a PSA about chronic illness in general (so your not missing any important book news if u skip ('∀｀） lol)

There are a lot of people in the world that have chronic illness. Regardless of the illness in question, there are likely to be tons of people with it or a similar illness.

As someone who is chronically ill, I know how difficult it can be to deal with and how rude some people can be regarding it. Despite the large number of people who are chronically ill, there are still so many people that are ignorant to it which causes them to be incredibly rude (unless they understand but are just rude because they are extremely rude). My goal with this is to hopefully spread awareness and let any of you out there that may be struggling with something like this yourself that I would be ecstatic to be there for you. The people who advocated for me in the beginning mean the world to me, and have empowered me to be able to make it through all of this. Personally, this would be something that I'd love to do for others as well (this is part of why I plan to eventually become a Rheumatologist a.k.a. a doctor for people who have diseases that cause their own body to attack itself).

As for those of you who don't have chronic illness, but are still reading this to understand it better, there are a lot of things that vary depending on what someone has. The best way to really understand what someone is going through is to talk to them and try your best to hear them out. If they aren't comfortable with talking, be understanding that they are going through a lot and be respectful. Sometimes it's hard to explain things to others when you don't really understand what's going on with you yourself.

Don't get upset with them and think that they're trying to be a drag when talking about what's going on. I can assure you that that's not the case at all. Living with chronic illness can be tuff, especially in the sense that it most cases it never fully goes away (although in some conditions there is a chance for a remission where they don't have symptoms but staying in remission is not always easy). Because it doesn't really go away, it can be hard to be 100% positive about it at times, so please be understanding about it.

Please don't think people with chronic illness are attention seeking. While there are some people that actually are just looking for attention, I can assure you that even if you can't physically see anything wrong with someone they are still having very REAL issues. For example, I look like a perfectly normal human being. Just by looking at a picture of me you wouldn't guess that there is something wrong with me. Maybe you'd guess by the way I walk, but unless you're a doctor (or very focused on that) you probably also wouldn't pick up on anything. If I'm not flaring, you may not even know from the way I talk, but on the inside I will always be in an extreme amount of pain along with other symptoms that don't present themselves on the outside. Think of it this way, you can't see the joints of someone with osteoarthritis (without an x-ray) eroding but you know and understand that that's truly there.

Also, please don't assume that we're trying to be rude if we have touching and other boundaries set differently than they used to be before. I've had a fair share of friends and family accuse me of being "rude" or "over dramatic" when someone touches me even though I said not to. All of my conditions stem from my nervous system not functioning properly, so the fibromyalgia syndrome aspect of it can cause me to become incredibly sensitive to touch. Sometimes even resting my arms on a table, let alone touching anything can be excruciatingly painful (and I'm not the only one that deals with this. Personally, I know two others.). So, you can probably imagine how much extra pain comes from someone giving you a bear hug when you just said "I touch sensitive right now, please don't touch me."

Another aspect to being called "rude" can come from a lack of energy we have compared to other people. Please don't think that someone is rude if they cancel plans with little notice or don't make them to begin with. In communities of people with chronic illness, we often talk about our energy in terms of "spoons." Everyday, we have a set amount of spoons before our energy runs out, and for a lot of us it's really hard to tell just how many we have until we run out.

Please don't assume we're dumb or incompetent because we can't remember words or different events. It's not that we forget out of not caring or not finding something important, there is a term for this called "brain fog" that affects a large amount of us. This specific aspect of chronic illness makes it incredibly difficult to keep up things like social interaction, academic performance, etc. In all honesty (and if you don't believe me my mom will verify this herself), I was eating a dinner consisting of a pork chop, green beans, and brown rice. I'd finished both the pork chop and the brown rice, but I was still hungry and I didn't know why. I was about to just go work on homework, when my mom came into the room and asked me what the heck I was doing. I told her I was going to do homework, and she shakily reminded me that I still had green beans to eat. I completely forgot they were there (and I was 4th in my high school class, but it still happened)! Brain fog doesn't have to do with intelligence, it can greatly affect anyone.

Well, if you read this far, thank you for actually taking the time understand what other people go through! All I ask is that you please be kind to others who have chronic illness because it is a very difficult thing to deal with.

*･゜ﾟ･*:.｡..｡.:*･'(*ﾟ▽ﾟ*)'･*:.｡. .｡.:*･゜ﾟ･*

Up Next...
-{HxH} Portor Feitan x Reader (fluff)
-{BLC} Kurosaki Ichigo x Reader (lemon) (requested)