Lisa Marie Basile

No addiction or recovery story is the same. You don’t always kick the habit and you don’t always find the forgiveness which you seek. Around 60% of addicts relapse, according to the U.S. government. Others die. Others end up prison. Others lose their kids. Some make a full recovery.

When you hear about a person with a chronic illness working or not working or considering quitting a job, these decisions were not made lightly.

In this column, I talk about things other people think or say, but not out loud, and certainly not in public. No one wants to say, “People either love me or hate me” because it sounds ridiculous and arrogant and icky.

Like a lot of people with chronic illness or autoimmune/autoinflammatory disorders, I went through a dead-end labyrinth to get my diagnosis.

The older we get, the harder it is to make close friends.

My happiness is what undid me, ironically. I worried so much about being OK with the happiness that I fell apart.

It can really take a toll on you when you have to parent a parent.