This is the time in our lives when those close to us begin to get health issues that are (a lot) worse than sinus infections and UTIs. Things like cancer, cancer recurrences, weird blood test results, scary heart ailments, Parkinson’s, and more. Or at least that’s what is going on in my circle of friends. I’ve often wondered how to ask for information, whether I’m prying, how the person is coping with the news, and what kind of help I could offer. And perhaps too many times, I’ve hung back and figured if the friend wanted to talk about medical matters, they would do so.
Wanting to do the right thing, I asked my friend, author Mindy Greenstein, Ph.D., for advice. Mindy knows this issue from both sides. She is a psycho-oncologist (meaning a therapist who works with cancer patients and/or caregivers), and she herself is a cancer patient, having first been diagnosed 13 years ago and now living with a “lazy but stubborn” variety of the disease. Here’s what she told me about how all of us can best support a friend dealing with a difficult diagnosis.
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