A Pop Quiz for Autoimmune Disease Awareness Month
Your immune-compromised friends will thank you, really!
O.K. Let’s get to it.
Your friend tells you that they have just been diagnosed with an auto-immune disease. Do you:
A.) Tell them about someone you know with the same disease who had to have their colon/spleen/brain removed and are now a literal shell of their former selves?
B.) Give them the full benefit of your internet research on diet and exercise as well as that one book that Oprah was raving about. Bonus points if you talk about the People Magazine article you read about how Gwyneth Paltrow’s sea kelp smoothies have actually restored her digestion system to that of a newborn baby. Finish with a thinly veiled judgment that if your friend had been living better, maybe they wouldn’t even have a disease?
C.) Say, “That really sucks.”
If you answered C, you are in the ballpark so congratulations on being a good friend!
In honor of Autoimmune Disease Awareness Month — which exists each March because seven percent of the U.S. population has an autoimmune disease — I wanted to share the following as one of that number. Crohn’s people — represent!
