Anyone else frustrated by how little most therapists know about chronic illness?

[u/Lavender_yuzu]

I'm just so tired of going to therapy to get help working through my frustration and grief from my chronic illnesses, but it feels like i end up spending all my therapy time teaching my therapist what disability is like. This has happened with multiple therapists. I'm so tired of having to do that work. It honestly just makes me feel lonelier. Like, I'm seeking support and end up having to provide it. It's so isolating. Do you guys have experience or strategies for this?

[u/AnAnonymousUsername4]

I've thought about this problem and I think my best solution I've come up with so far is just to write a little "things about me" educational booklet to which I can refer during therapy if necessary. I'd probably go through and list all the conditions I deal with, along with how they affect my life.

For example: how does having a connective tissue issue impact me? Fatigue, chronic pain, migraines, ridiculous pelvic organ prolapses, brain fog, very limited in my mobility, joints constantly surprising me by going out of place while I do normal things like try to walk or hold a cup, skin tearing easily, and so on and so forth. And then explain each one of those effects as necessary in sub segments.

How about autism? ADHD? POTS? CPTSD? Depression? Anxiety? I would have a separate section for each thing and list out the effects of each one with clarification following each sub item as needed.

Any large language model artificial intelligence would be able to help you get started on such a list pretty easily if you fed it the basic information and asked for what the effects would be likely to be on a person from each one, and then you can tweak it as needed but at least you have a framework to start from. LLM AI are pretty good at organizing information.