The absolute worst thing you can say to someone who has Lyme disease (or any number of “invisible illnesses”) is “you look great”. Perhaps we don’t look sick. Perhaps we do and you want to make us feel better. But saying that to someone with one of those diseases makes the person feel defensive, like they have to then prove to you that they are sick.
Most of us look healthy. Maybe we limp, or have twitches, but for the most part we look fine. But if you could spend an hour inside our bodies you would certainly never say that we look fine knowing what we are going through. But because we are not missing body parts, or covered in lesions and wasting away to nothing, people seem to think that if you look okay, you must feel okay.
That is not the case, and if you ask any one of us suffering from these types of diseases most everyone would ask you to please not tell us “but you don’t look sick”.
I’m beginning a series of helpful hints for families and loved ones of Lyme disease…along the lines of the things that most of us are not willing to tell our loved ones, so I’ll do it for you. If you have any ideas of helpful hints I can share please email them to LymeBitesDotCom@yahoo.com.
Thanks from Eric and the thousands of others who suffer from invisible illnesses.