AIO for telling someone to F*** Off after they Called my sharing of survivor's guilt exasperating because I got to live and the donor didn't?
Someone was sharing something about the different reactions each biological parent had when they found them and reached out. Others were commenting about trauma, so I wanted to tell my little story about when I got my liver transplant. Basically, I wanted to reach out to the donor family to personally thank them with every ounce of my being, but the hospital has a policy that the donor chooses to remain anonymous or not, which I respected. I went on the mention my plan to have my entire family (extended included) sign a guest book and tell the donor family how much their loved one's donation meant and how grateful not just me, but everyone was. I would then send it to the hospital, which would contact the donor family on my behalf, giving them the option to take it or not.
Anyway, at the end I mentioned how much Survivor's guilt sucks, and if anybody here, god forbid, has gone through it, you know exactly what I mean.
Their response? "Poor you, you didn't die? WTF?"
I was taken aback. Was she trying to be funny? Nope.
" I'm expressing exasperation that somebody actually died and you were the recipient of their gift of life, but you're still making it all about you and how bad you feel about it. Why did you accept the gift if you're just going to feel bad about it? "
After a small, pointless attempt to explain how Survivor's guilt works. Readers who are unaware of what Survivor's Guilt is, it is a feeling of remorse and sadness because the only reason you are alive is that someone died. It's a feeling of "It's not fair, am I even worthy to get this?" Yeah, great, awesome that I get a second chance at life, but the cost is SO huge that a lot of recipients' brains can't process it. For the rest of my life, I will be doing whatever I can to keep being "enough" to get a second chance because of their sacrifice. That family had a loss. THAT family had to mourn, and it isn't fair.
I was talking to a brick wall made of butts, so I just told them, " I want to tell you to just fuck off so badly. But I don't curse."