How to announce a serious illness to loved ones?

If most health professionals encourage talking about the serious illness to loved ones, there is no obligation to do so yourself, and even less in a hurry. First taking the time to realize what is happening allows you to gather your ideas before informing those around you.

How to talk about it?

Breaking bad news is as difficult for the giver as it is for the receiver. Avoid announcements over the phone, or in public. Nothing like it to generate even more questions from your interlocutor and create frustration.

Once you feel ready to talk about it around you, it is best to bring up the subject in a small committee, at a time when you feel you can have your interlocutor’s full attention. Avoid starting directly by saying that you have a serious illness so as not to rush those around you too quickly or using too technical a vocabulary.

Speak in your own words about the location of your disease as well as the consequences on your body and your life in general for the next few weeks or months. In this way, you help your loved one to gradually understand what it is about without having to use the word “cancer”, for example. Reassure him without trivializing, while informing him about the treatments you are going to have and the chances of recovery given to you by your doctor.

What if I can’t do it myself?

If you can’t talk about it with your loved ones for various reasons, don’t beat yourself up, it’s completely normal that this ordeal is particularly difficult. You can then help yourself with a health professional who can inform while reassuring and answering the questions of those around you.

Find out more: “Healing against all odds: The daily guide for the sick and their loved ones to overcome cancer”, by Stéphanie Matthews Simonton, Carl Simonton and James Creighton, DDB editions.