I agree with this in many ways, but I do want to point out that an illness is not the same thing as unemployment or depression. As someone who is chronically ill, I can say that I do sometimes need someone to take care of me. We all sometimes need someone to take care of us. That doesn’t make us a bad partner.

There’s way too much cultural pressure already to pretend that trauma, disability, or mental illness shouldn’t impact a person or should be easily overcome through the power of positive thinking.

I wish it worked like that.

And I wish treatment for chronic conditions was as easy as a pill and six weeks of therapy. But it’s not.