It is good to know others are experiencing the same things as us, who understand our frustrations and pain, the little things that help us, etc. With chronic pain and illness, it gives me hope and perspective. I have often found a bond with people that makes me feel less alone in what I'm going through. But then there are the gaps that seem unable to be crossed by any bridge. Religion. Substances. Sometimes children. Sometimes the quest for a cure. I know we're all different, and I'm not hating on people who are different than I am, or at different points of their journey and education. I'm saying that I feel alienated by concepts that we can't reconcile. And where these concepts are understood, the rest of me isn't. It's not that I can't be friends with someone who is sick and has religious beliefs, it's just that they are always going to defer to God for their hope and meaning, what feels like a blockade to honesty and acceptance t...