The Logistics of Condescending Brochures

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I just read a Mayo Clinic brochure.

And it made me feel awful about myself.

It told me that I needed to exercise 60 minutes a day even when I feel terrible, that I can't get a disabled pass because autonomic dysfunction in teenagers is not a disability but it certainly is in adults. Add as much salt as I can tolerate to everything. That I can only stay home from school if I have an injury or am contagiously sick.



Which just makes me feel bad, because if you can't do any of those things, then it will make you feel awful about yourself. To be clear, while exercise improves POTS for some people, it is not a cure.  If someone tells me all of the things that I can do, I will almost always disagree- they always seem to downplay my symptoms. Why? I'm 14.

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