No One Cares

A little over a year ago I posted a blog about my narcissism related to Parkinson’s and my friends (Find it here). At the time my therapist told me that “no one cares about you having PD more than you do”. This came up because I was to attend an event with old friends. I did not attend because I did not want my Parkinson's to be the center of attention.

Last month I attended an event with many of the same people. Mostly, they know I have Parkinson’s but have not seen me since I was diagnosed. And you know what? I was right. Despite no apparent visible symptoms their behavior was often focused on me having Parkinson’s. They pulled up chairs for me. Offered to bring me a plate of food from the buffet line. I was asked numerous times if I needed to sit down for a bit. They asked to see the scars from the DBS. They wanted to know about the blog. They wanted to know how I was doing. They catered to me and Parkinson’s the whole night.

I soon realized that they just genuinely cared about me and wanted to do something, anything to help me. It was my job to stay out of their way and let them do something nice for me. I soon felt gratitude towards my friends, rather than embarrassment about my Parkinson’s. My therapist was right (again!). No one cares about me having Parkinson’s more than I do. And the more I care, the less I appreciate others and will likely end up facing this disease alone.