Patients for a Moment: Disclosure

To tell, or not to tell?  When it comes to a chronic or serious health issue, that is one sticky question. And if you do decide to tell, what happens next?

For this edition of Patients for a Moment, I asked contributors to contemplate just that, and got an array of thoughtful responses, reactions and reflections on the subject.

Lisa Emrich digs right in at Brass and Ivory with a take on the topic that strikes a personal note with me - as a blogger, do you disclose your real identity or not? What are the pros and cons?  Check out the full article: Disclosure: Patients, PR and Participation.

Kirsten ponders disclosing her rheumatoid arthritis from both a personal and professional perspective in her post at Not Standing Still's Disease.

At Getting Closer to Myself, Leslie recounts an honest and inspiring 'reveal' to the new person in her life in Breaking My Own Rules: The Doctor is in the House. 

Vlad from the Wellbook Blog discusses his approach and the reasoning behind it in Too Much Information.

How do you tell your parents you have cancer...after the fact?  Kairol Rosenthal at Everything Changes responds to this very question from a reader in Hiding Cancer from your Parents?

Sandra asks us to consider 'what's at stake' in her post, Shout it Out at Healing Environmental Illnesses.

At Novel Patient, Lauren writes about what happens when her illness goes from being invisible to obvious, and how that does or doesn't impact who and how much she talks about her illnesses in Full Disclosure. 

In Disclosure, (not quite) One Year Later, Helen from Pens and Needles reflects on her feelings about disclosure now vs. then and lays out what she's learned to make it go more smoothly. 

Thanks to everyone who contributed this round!I hope you will get as much out of the posts from this edition as I have.  Many of them strike a very personal note for me, and this topic is one that I find myself thinking about often, especially now that I am in a new city meeting lots of new people.

Stay tuned for the next edition of Patients for a Moment, which will be hosted by Amanda from This Crazy Miracle Called Life.

Comments

[Lisa Emrich]

This post is timely as just two days ago an unexpected person contacted me (on facebook) because of posts I had written at MyRACentral. Because of using my real name, a cousin (who I haven't seen in maybe 20 years) is back in touch.

The reason isn't so exciting - she was just diagnosed with RA - but it's nice that I can support her at this stage of her journey. And together we can discuss our mothers and aunts who live with autoimmune diseases.

If I had chosen not to use my real name, she would have just seen a very familiar face and wondered why that adult looked like someone she should know.

This is the most personal the outreach of blogging has become. Family reunited over RA and information online.

[Sandra Lee]

Terrific round-up. Thanks! I look forward to reading all these posts.

P.S. Not to confuse anyone, I recently changed my blog name and url. My article is posted on both at my old address and my new one.

[Vladimir Levin]

Hi Sara, well done! And the picture you selected is aweseome! Did you make it yourself?

[Helen]

Great round-up, Sara! I'm looking forward to reading all of these and learning from them.

[Cheryl]

Thanks so much for this - I have RA as well, and while I have put a lot of thought into when to disclose the fact to employers, I've been really casual about it with friends/potential dating partners. The links you posted helped me see why it's probably something to put more thought into!

(aside note: I know you wrote about when to disclose it to a date - in 100% of my cases, I actually found that the dating partner saw it as a positive - like, "Wow, you are tough to have gone through that." So, for many, it will be seen as a strength, not a weakness, paradoxically!)

[Michelle]

I feel fortunate enough to have been able to tell my employer, because she also has RA, and has been a great resource and source of information and understanding.