There are MANY challenging things to navigate in life with chronic illness… one of them is understanding who in your life you share pertinent medical information with… and decided how much to share.
Honestly it has taken me years of learning to navigate this and I know have a really good sense of whom to share information with. In the past however, I would struggle with this discernment and often find myself let down when I would share medical information with a friend or family member and receive no response at all, or a response which I found to be entirely unsupportive or even felt painful to hear.
The fact is, we are suffering a great deal in our daily lives living with chronic illness, and we want more than anything for others to understand what we are going through, especially our friends and family, but even our medical professionals who often don’t truly understand the struggles, co-workers, anyone we are in regular contact with in our lives.
The hard truth however, is that MOST of the people in our lives will not take interest in trying to understand and offer and help or compassion. This doesn’t make them bad people, they just haven’t practiced that skill yet in life, and they are probably very wrapped up in their own struggles you likely know nothing about. This sucks, and hurts at times, but it is okay… and doesn’t mean you need to toss these people out of your life either. You simply need to learn to discern which people are your friends and you only talk about your careers with, or sports teams, or your children. Which co-workers are strictly business, and which one may actually show interest in a deeper connected relationship with you. Don’t give up on people, because connections are so healthy and healing, just accept that there will likely only be 2-3 people in your life who will truly be able to walk beside you in your chronic illness struggles in a way that is healthy and supportive to you, and that is okay.
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