It’s no surprise that sometimes people say things they don’t want to–or mean to. Especially when they’re talking to someone with a disease like pulmonary hypertension (PH), that is not fully understood by those who don’t live with it. Pulmonary hypertension is a chronic illness, and chronic illnesses affect around 133 million Americans.
To help you learn more about what you shouldn’t say to chronically ill people, we’ve put together this list of nine things you should never say (source: healthline.com):
Sometimes people who live with chronic illnesses that have very few external signs are not believed. If people can’t see your disease, they often don’t think you have a disease–and that’s just not true. Pulmonary hypertension has several symptoms that are just internal and are most of the time invisible for those who don’t know them.
So no, it’s not just in your head and you’re not overreacting. Your chronic illness may be an invisible one, but it’s just as real as any other health condition.
Read more about how fatigue is amplified in sedentary women with PAH.