Angelman, diabetes, and self-worth

Recently, I’ve made a few references to my brother, who has Angelman Syndrome. He is a full-grown adult but is incapable of the most mundane of tasks.  But most of the time he is happy, for he is not capable of understanding that he has certain limitations (or so we believe).  He will never understand what a teacher he’s been to myself and my whole whole family, but his mere presence is an inspiration – a lesson on priorities and what is so important in life.  I’ve been meaning to write a bit more about him in a context that is relevant to this blog.  This thought process keeps keeps taking me back to something I wrote earlier.

Last year, a member of TuDiabetes (whose name I will not include in this post) posted a message titled “Guilt.”  This short but powerful message really struck a chord with me, and still resonates in my head to this day:

I feel guilty that I am alive and continue to be a burden to the people I love. They all deserve so much better.
I truly believe the world would be a better place without me.
Diabetes and all the side effects render me a useless waste of space.

–A TuDiabetes.org member