First Post :) MS, family & friends
I was diagnosed over the summer of this year and I let the people closest to me know a few weeks later. My family have been a great support practically and my friends treat me the same way as always.
But I’m struggling that no one is asking how I am or how I’m getting on with my MS since my diagnosis. It’s been a rollercoaster few months so I’d love to have talked to people. It made me pretty upset for the first couple of weeks but now I think that they don’t know what to say or ask. Usually, they’re pretty good for checking in, chatting and mental health in general. It makes me not want to bring it up either cause I don’t want to make people uncomfortable. But it’s creating this internalise worry that people don’t want to hear it at all.
Has anyone else had an experience like this where MS feels taboo?
Is there anything I can do to make MS more approachable for my family and friends?
Hi Nikki, I felt quite similar to you when I was diagnosed earlier this year. It’s such a big thing to adjust to and if you’re anything like me having MS will be on your mind almost all the time at the beginning! Other people either may not realise that or want to give you space to not think about it all the time by not asking you about it when they see you and reminding you. I’ve found as the months have gone on my friends ask more (so I think they have given me time to process things). I found this site a great inbetween in the meantime as there are lots of lovely, friendly, some experienced MSers and some new like us. But if you need to talk things through with people close to you just bring it up and talk about it - they might then realise it’s not taboo, they can ask questions and ‘remind’ you about it!!
@lucys Thank you so much for your thoughtful response! Yeah I don’t think they realise that it on my mind most of the time, it’s good to hear I’m not alone there!