Services for people with rheumatoid
arthritis
Awareness and reaction of family and friends
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Transcript
SPEAKER 1:
It’s taken me a long time to tell my family
and friends, to be honest, although I’ve been experiencing it for a
long time. In recent years I’ve told my mother, even though I’ve
had it for about 5/6 years; obviously I didn't want her to get
worried about it. I haven’t really said anything to my friends, to
be honest. I don't know why but I guess that’s the way it’s been -
so it’s taken me a long time.
SPEAKER 2:
With friends and people I worked with, it was
a large degree of ignorance because actually there’s not an awful
lot of information out there on what rheumatoid arthritis
means.
SPEAKER 3:
My family life was very difficult and my
children and my husband all suffered a lot. My daughter, even
though she was only 9, was having to help me get dressed nearly
every morning because I couldn't even do that myself and
even now (when I’m much better) we don’t have a normal family life;
everything revolves around ‘can mum manage to do this if we get
there? .. can she walk around the park with us?’ and usually the
answer is ‘no’.
SPEAKER 4:
I didn't know what rheumatoid arthritis was; I
thought, like most people do, I just associated it with old people.
I didn't really know how serious it can be, I didn't know how much
pain it would cause or damage; you just think ‘arthritis; old
people’ and it’s just got the stigma attached to it. My mum didn't
have a clue what rheumatoid arthritis was, she just, I think, like
everyone else, she’d heard of it but you just think of old
people, you just think ‘how can a 16 year old have rheumatoid
arthritis, it just isn’t possible’. I think people need to
understand that it’s a serious illness and it affects people of all
ages and it’s not the same as osteo-arthritis and people often get
it confused, they don’t hear the ‘rheumatoid’, they just hear
‘arthritis’ and assume it’s not very serious and it’s not really
going to make a huge impact on your life but it does. I didn't tell
my friends at first and in fact I didn't tell my friends until I
was at university, so no-one knew I had it, if I was limping or
missing school I’d say ‘oh, I’ve hurt myself, I’ve hurt my ankle’
because I felt like it was a bad thing to have; that people would
think ‘oh, she’s old and decrepit because she’s got arthritis’,
because people don’t understand it and they don’t think of
it as a serious illness; they think it’s just creaky joints.
Return to Services for people with
rheumatoid arthritis: accompanying videos.