Living with a chronic condition can be tough because you are dealing with it on a daily basis. What can make it even tougher is when no one really know what your condition is or how it affects you. You never truly understand until you get it yourself, right?
Maybe you have made a new friend or started a new job but none of your colleagues know about your condition and that’s fine, you’re comfortable with it like this. But then you have to rush to bathroom for the umpteenth time that morning or perhaps they see you taking your truckload of meds at lunch. And they start to ask questions. What do you do? Do you shrug it off and say it’s nothing? Or do you tell them about your condition, bringing awareness to them?
Now, just to be clear, no one is forcing you to tell your story to anyone. You are not obliged to tell everyone who asks about your health situation (or anything else for, that matter). Telling your friend or colleague that “it’s nothing” is a perfectly fine answer and they should respect that you don’t want to tell them and if they try to push the issue, they are in breach of your trust and are not owed anything (not that they were to begin with).
However, if you do choose to share your condition with them, you may find things are a little simpler to explain; for me, telling some of my colleagues that I have IBD (and a stoma) was somewhat unavoidable; I was having issues with my stoma that were affecting my ability to perform my daily tasks at work so a couple of my colleagues found out. Although I didn’t feel 100% comfortable about sharing such personal information with them as we had not known each other for very long, it did make my life a little easier from that point on; my colleagues who knew were more aware of what I was able to do (ie. lifting heavy things was a big no-no at the time) and I didn’t feel like I needed to explain myself if I was rushing to the bathroom or needing to sit down for a moment, having overdone it.
I know, it’s not our job to educate the ignorant but if someone asks, helping them to understand a condition that affects so many but is otherwise unknown to those who do not suffer with it will help raise awareness and may even make your life a little easier. It’s your choice though, please do not feel like you have to tell someone about your condition/s just because they asked. They do not have a right to that information, it is yours to volunteer if you see fit.
What Can I Eat 