How Do You Talk About Disease?

Last week, I traveled to California for a yoga workshop. It was a fun and playful experience. But because of the nature of the type of physical practice, I found that I needed to share the details of my disease with the organizers and a few participants.

Generally speaking, everyone was very supportive. The instructors leading the workshop were kind in making modifications to the practice as needed. One of my colleagues, one who in the few days of the workshop had become rather close, said something surprising.

When I talk about rheumatoid arthritis, I usually reference “my disease,” “my RA,” etc. Talking about my illness, as though it belongs to me, as though it’s a part of me that isn’t going away any time soon. He suggested that I would be better served to not use the pronoun in describing my relationship to the disease, that it somehow described an attachment to the illness that may lock it into being.

An interesting thought. Though at the moment, I was a bit offended. “Let me take responsibility for my shit,” I remember thinking. It is something I will be dealing with, for better or worse, for the rest of my life.

Or is it?

The friend that brought this up is a follower of Abraham Hicks (LINK). To over simplify, he subscribes to the “if you can dream, it you can be it” philosophy

But for a chronic, is this type of hope valuable, or simply insane idealism to the point of delusion? Discuss.