You feel better when someone asks how are you doing?

Hey how's your health now? / How are you feeling / doing now? Hope you are better now! Sometime asking me about my health in general is good, other may mind this, but a person may guess the health condition of other while looking intelligently observing his/her body state. Be careful in our hypothesis, it must be based on ground realities of my physical or mental well being.

Or nor like a ward boy of Doctor whose story I am going to tell you. It is said once, a doctor visited a patient, doctor asked him you ate mango, some soup and rice, or likewise this, the patient nod his head positively, when the doctor and boy came out from the patient house, ward boy asked, sir, how did you know this, Doctor replied, o foolish, you did not saw mango peel and other left thing under his bed, from that I came to know about his food.

Next day, doctor send ward boy to visit the patient, and said try to know what the food he took. Ward boy saw under the bed there was a donkey’s hide lying. He asked the patient did you eat donkey, he slapped him, he came to Doctor sadly, Doctor asked what happened, he said I guess in the same fashion as you did it, and asked the patient whether he has eaten donkey he slapped me.

Be sharp enough, in guessing, and asked in a dignified manner, before you are ashamed even when you look at me from the outside, I'm a perfectly healthy person 60+ year old who actually looks 50 or so, and not one who either walks incredibly slowly with a cane or uses a wheelchair and am constantly in severe pain. It's an odd sight. I know a lot of people don't agree with me, but I don't mind when people ask about my health problems, as long as they are polite and respectful about it. Here's some do's and dont's.

The people who obnoxiously stare and point, yeah buzz off. Didn't your mother ever tell you it's rude to stare? Making eye contact with those people is the best, they are so embarrassed about it. The people who rudely come up and act like they are owed an explanation as to why I'm walking oddly or what I'm sick with, yeah no. Not going to tell you anything. Also, if you come up and mimic my limp or say something about how I'm “too young to be sick,” I will give you a sickly smile but absolutely hate you and everyone like you. That's the wrong way to approach things.

The best way to approach me is to be kind, smile, and act like I'm a human being because surprisingly, I'm not my illness. If I seem to be struggling, you can ask if I'm alright or need any help but be respectful of my answer and don't argue with me.

If you want to know about my illness because of something in your life, then come up and introduce yourself and why you started the conversation first before asking me about myself (i.e. I had a woman and her husband come up one time at an ice cream shop and say that she saw me at the doctor's office that morning and wondered if we had the same condition and if we could chat as she didn't know anyone else like her. It was really sweet).

If you are simply curious, just come up and make a conversation with me. Say hi, ask how my day is going, don't immediately ask why I'm different. As long as I seem open to general conversation, say something along the lines of “I don't mean to pry but would you mind if I ask about blank (whatever made you want to ask in the first place).” Sometimes I'll explain my condition in detail, sometimes I'll simply give you the name of it to do your own research, sometimes I'll tell you that I'd rather not talk about it. Basically, you've been kind and treated me like a fellow human being instead of an oddity to be explored so I'm going to give you the same respect and be kind in return.

Just remember that we are people too and everyone is different. If someone gets offended by you asking, apologize and move on. Don't get defensive about it. You aren't owed an answer to your questions and there's a host of different reasons people react in the way they do. Some people are very private and don't want to broadcast their health issues. Some are introverts or socially anxious people who hate being talked to, let alone asked personal questions. There are people who are struggling and simply trying to make it through the day and don't have the time or energy to spend talking with you.

In my experience though, as long as you are respectful and polite, people will treat you in the same way. Cheers!