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What words or phrases bother you?
In Lara Govendo’s column, she explores the world of well-meaning but ultimately hurtful words and phrases that many people with CF hear. While these people may be well-intentioned in what they’re saying, they can ultimately cut deep or come across as accidentally ignorant.
What words or phrases bother you? How do you respond when you hear things that bother you that are meant to be well-intentioned?
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5 Replies
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words and phrases that bother me are being called a CFer, a cystic, those people, sick person, well ya look great
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I’ve never heard of a cystic before. Is that an older or newer one?
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William and Scrappy – for me it’s you look great, *I’m glad you got well.*. Also “there are lots of people worse off than you “.
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One that really gets to me is, “At least it’s not [insert something else].” I get that people are trying to be positive or lighten the mood, but it ends up minimizing what I’m dealing with. I try to respond gently when I have the energy—sometimes by saying, “I know you mean well, but that actually makes it harder to talk about how I really feel.” It’s not always easy, but those conversations can help people be more aware in the future.
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A couple of things people say really annoy me: After someone hears me coughing – “Gotta stop smoking mate….” or “You need to cut down on the cigarettes” and back before self check out at the grocery store, the check out attendant looking at all my high calorie food – “Who’s having the party?” or something similar. Argh… no this is just what I need to eat to stop loosing weight!!! Sometimes I explain why I cough or why I buy the food I do. Other times I can’t be bothered.
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