Like many women, I suffer from CPPD: Chronic People Pleasing Disease.  Getting diagnosed with Cancer has helped me to become less of a pleaser, which apparently is cancer’s “gift” to me.  But even though I’ve been told that I have only a 50% chance of living five years, I still insist on squandering my days being a people pleaser.

The really insane part is that I often do it with people I don’t even know, yesterday was a perfect example.  I was fighting some type of infection and I was dealing with an episode of depression.  I felt so much grief over my mangled body, the loss of my former high-energy self, the intestine sticking out of my tummy, my missing female parts.  I wanted to cry and scream and yet nothing came out…except a lipsticked smile.

While in a law office getting paperwork notorized, I found myself having to explain Mesothelioma.  So I stood there, feeling ill and deeply depressed and then like a PR Wizard I proceeded to spin an almost upbeat tale about my experience with this “crazy cancer caused by asbestos!”  The pre-programmed Chronic People Pleaser in me didn’t want to make anyone feel “uncomfortable,” so I pretended that everything was essentially fine.  And this is what I do almost every single day. It is exhausting and yet like an addict I can’t seem to stop.

Just as a woman might hide her bad skin under a layer of foundation, I hide my true emotions under a layer of faux “happiness.”  I know this behavior only worsens my depression because each time you don’t speak your truth, you lose a little bit of your soul.  What would happen if I started saying “no.”  What would happen if I started saying “I feel desperate.”  What would happen if I made someone feel uncomfortable?  What would happen if I let people be angry with me?  I need to find out, my soul is begging me.