CNN article-what not to say to the chronically ill

You are going through so much, yet you still have such joy. How do you do that?

Lolzers, I had to laugh. There is little danger of anyone saying that to me :p

In general though, I agreed with the article. The one that I get the most often is "you look well!". I know it's well-intended, but it's still annoying to look well and not feel well. To be honest, no matter how ill or underweight I have been, I never seemed to look 'sick' sick. An aunt once told me solemnly that I was 'thin, but had clear skin' - well, that's all right then!

Supplements or food recommendations should never be suggested. People wouldn't presume they were knowledgeable enough to recommend prescription meds or surgery, why do they presume they are knowledgeable enough about supplements and diet? Chances are, they don't know the first thing about your disease!

Comments like "I wish I had the luxury of being sick" are just spiteful - I would seriously wonder about somebody's motives if they said that to me.

Everything else is probably a matter of context. There are times when it may be helpful to encourage somebody not to give in or to do something else, for example.

Yeah, as usual, I made a kind of sweeping statement (I qualified that, though! <_<)

I'm lucky to not get very many diet or supplement suggestions, but, of the ones I have got, none have been helpful. I'm not talking about HW, where at least there are people who share the same condition as you and have a certain amount of in-depth knowledge. I'm talking about people who vaguely think of Crohn's as being like IBS and who think your diet is the problem; or people who google something like 'Crohn's remedies', post a few links, and ask if any of that helps? (No.)

That really grinds my gears, to be honest - more than the chirpy 'you look well!' in fact. Again, I know such folks are well-meaning, but if they stopped to think about it for 10 seconds, wouldn't it occur to them that I have a thousand times more vested interest in Crohn's than they do, and thus have googled it considerably. I suppose what annoys me is that it appears thoughtful, but in reality it involves barely any thought at all. I'm probably way overthinking it now, so I'll shut up.

At last :p