-
Navigating Controversial Conversations as a PF Patient
Controversial conversations are never easy to navigate, regardless of age or experience, especially when engaging with people you love. And since the start of the pandemic, nothing has seemed more controversial than mask-wearing at first and now vaccines!As patients living with IPF, our lives depend on research, medications and transplant outcomes which are all driven by science. I have to trust science, and get easily irritated by others who believe mask-wearing and vaccines, or worse yet, COVID-19 altogether, are a hoax. I know and love some of those people, and don’t know how to have authentic and meaningful relationships with them going forward. Superficial conversations are easy, but how do you handle a relationship when substantial and important topics (like masks and vaccines amid a global pandemic) are controversial, and differ drastically from your beliefs?
I wrote a column about this which can be found HERE, and I’d love for you to read it.
I’m curious how other patients have handled controversial conversations about the pandemic, and if any relationships have changed for you as a result. Please share your experiences!
Note: any opinions or comments that are disrespectful to others will be removed. I am not inviting opinions, but rather how to handle controversial conversations with those you love.
-
1 Reply
-
Hi Charlene,
I have to use my many years of sales experience again. I do my best to put myself in their shoes because I know one thing that is fueling misconceptions and misstated medical advice from any source is fear.
After serving in a war and then working underground for almost 13 years with some of the toughest guys on the planet, I do my best to never let fear conquer me and it hasn’t in many years. But, I do have fear and I understand it as a self-centered tool to preserve myself which I cannot nor can anyone else. Just ask the marine I helped that carried grenades, M-14, bayonet, and other tools of protection if they helped him when he stepped on a landmine and lost both legs, both arms (mostly), and had a metal plate in his head. That taught me a lot. So avoiding the trapped opinions of others is good for me and I just try to lead by example instead – that’s a work in progress. Hahaha…
Stay well,
Steve
Log in to reply.