How to tell people you have crohns?

I am 20 years old and have had crohns for almost a year.  I have told my family and close friends that have crohns, but I am going to be studying in London for a year and will be living with complete strangers.  Theres no way to hide the fact that I take so many meds, go to the bathroom a lot, have fatigue, restricted diet, and all the other amazing things that come along with crohns.  The people I have told are really supportive about, but I know and trust them.  I dont know how the tell the people I will be living with in London that I have crohns.  Do I wait for them to ask me whats wrong or do I tell them upfornt? I dont want to scare them away, because I want to make friends, but at the same time I think I need to be truthful.  Any advise that I should tell these people would help a lot.

If they're brave enough to ask "what's wrong" they should be brave enough to handle the truth...you can down-play it if needed but mine as well tell it like it is.

:)

Hi, Yeah, I have been in your situation too, nowadays, I do not care anymore!
All my friends know about my situation, the ones that have never called me back after I have told them, were not actually my friends.
Now tell this to strangers could be a little difficult, first if you are feeling ok, keep it to yourself, if you are not, tell the truth, I do not know where you are from, but people I have met from Europe tend to be more reserved than people from Brazil and USA or the whole latin America, is just the way they are, I think we are more passional to deal with things sometimes - this is not necessarily a good thing though!!
I have also realized that when I tell people that I have a disease that they have never heard they look at me very scared, as if I have the Ebola virus or something like that, explain that is an autoimmune disease and it is not contagious, say what your symptoms are and what are your restrictions when you are in a flare, you do not have to give them all the sordid details. Knowing your problems they will respect why sometimes you are not eating someting or not in the mood to go out, the wil understand that you are not a pokey person! YOU will feel better telling them

I am up front about it to everyone now. I have seen the full gamut of responses from people. My canned short introduction to CD is "I have gut problems." I use this with folks that I am not sure how much they want to hear. If they ask, I give them the full description.

Have fun over there!! At least the food shouldn't be too wild.

I think that the advice given here is good. What do you feel comfy doing about telling your new roommates? Would it be more comfy for you to tell them when you all are sitting down talking about yourselves and lives? Or would it be easier for you to wait until they see you taking your medication? When you tell them just kinda give them a few moments to let it sink in—they might have questions for you about it. For example: My son is autistic. He is high functioning and to see him you wouldn’t know it. I let him wonder though the library on his own with me in the background. He will spend a TON of time looking for one book that he has decided he needs to get. He will ask the library lady to help him and they will spend up to 20 minute searching. He will ask her to check the bookmobile, the books other kids just brought back, etc… The first time he did this I decided I better let the librarian know about his autism. I just walked up to her when my son was looking on the shelf and told her that he is autistic and will really focus on the book. It is like gold to him. She told me that she would be happy to make sure he gets it. She asked me about other versions of the book (such as on CD) and they went on their book hunt. If I hadn’t told the gal about his situation she might have been harsh to him, however since I did tell her now when we go to the library she knows exactly what to expect from him as well as how to handle it.