Friends of people with PD

[blazyb]

My friends have been amazing but a lot of people wonder how to be friends with someone going through something like PD - here are my thoughts - fightingparkinsonss.com/202...

[jeffmayer]

No!!but spent the day in hospital in Xmas day and eatill to much Turkey and an hour later my drugs would no to kick in it such aneffect I have gone vegetarian

[DogsWoode]

A good read....thank you.

[Boscoejean]

I am thankful we have really good friends who have been very helpful. I guess our good luck has been always having friends who are very caring, pay attention and have always been considerate and supportive. I don't think that any of them have ever known anyone who had Parkinson's prior to my husband.

[Querkle]

We are all different. I was devastated when I was diagnosed 12 years ago. I didn’t know anyone with PD and didn’t know where to turn. The first friends I told were my gym buddies and they really didn't know how to react. So I decided not to tell people as i didn't want to be defined by the disease, so my body had to behave! 10 years on I started to tell friends who had no idea what I had been hiding.

So I have friends I play bridge with, another couple I play mahjong with, a group of Nordic walkers , coffee buddies and my wonderful husband. Life is more difficult now and I am very slow but these friends are still there and hopefully will be there to the end and will continue to be there for my husband.

[jeeves19 in reply to Querkle]

I hope so. I’m actually struck by how rarely people get in touch? Maybe they weren’t interested because our friendship wasn’t as strong as I’d imagined or maybe they chose to distance themselves because of my PD? Who can say? But it’s certainly no big ‘love in’ from my perspective. My wife thinks it’s because I’m a guy and that other ‘guys’ don’t do friendship very well. If that’s so, I’d prefer to be a girl! 😂😂

[Charaf1959 in reply to jeeves19]

C c'est une option mais un être humain est d'essence fragile

[Querkle in reply to jeeves19]

I think sometimes we have to instigate the phone call .

[jeeves19 in reply to Querkle]

True but stop making the call and see what happens: it seems to me that ‘friends’ will allow a friendship to crash and burn before they actually call you.

[blazyb]

totally hear you

[PalmSprings]

Friends and Parkinson’s is a topic we all need to come to terms with. An important realization that I have had is some people are better at dealing than others. This doesn’t mean the others don’t care but just that they don’t have the emotional depth needed to cope with watching their friend hurting and deteriorating. Lots of people want to fix things for you or tell you that the cure is around the corner. With no solution around the corner, facing deterioration head on is impossible for some. I have pulled away from some of my friends that I felt were bringing me down. I used to say that PD helped me discover who my real friends were but it’s partly me not being able to handle them. If they couldn’t given me want I needed, I pulled away from them.